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Ubisoft no longer has to fear the threat of Vivendi's takeover, thanks to a new deal with Tencent and several other investment groups.
Since 2015, French media conglomerate Vivendi has been slowly buying more and more of Ubisoft's shares, which at one point reached 27.3% (30,489,300 shares).
Ubisoft publicly, and on more than one occasion, said that this is something it's completely against. CEO Yves Guillemot called it "a fight to preserve our independence" at one point.
Despite this, Vivendi continued to increase its stake, sometimes seemingly out of spite, choosing to do it before and after E3 2016, for example. In 2017, the writing was on the wall, and reports of Vivendi's impending hostile takeover of Ubisoft started rolling in.
Three years later, things are looking up for Ubisoft. The publisher has confirmed that Vivendi will sell off its shares in Ubisoft, and that it has agreed not to acquire any more of them for the next five years.
Ubisoft was able to do this buy offering to buy Vivendi's shares, but since it can't foot the entire bill, it instead did so with the help from Chinese mega-conglomerate Tencent, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Both parties are now "long-term investors," according to Ubisoft.
Tencent is one of the largest tech companies in the world. It's the biggest publisher in China, owning massively popular services like QQ and WeChat, but it also has a hand in a number of big, profitable companies around the world.
It owns League of Legends developer Riot, Clash of Clans maker Supercell, 48% of Epic Games, and has stakes in a dozen other publishers and developers, including Activision Blizzard.
As a result of this deal, Ubisoft is also entering a "strategic partnership" with Tencent, through which the French publisher hopes to increase the reach of its franchises in China.
This takes care of the bulk of Vivendi's shares, and the rest will be reacquired by Ubisoft buying back some of the shares, as well as an an acquisition by the Guillemot Brothers SE investment firm.
According to Venture Beat, Vivendi made quite the profit off the back of this deal, getting €2 billion ($2.45 billion), compared to the €750 million it paid over the past three years.


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MONROE, Mich. (AP) -- La-Z-Boy Inc. is closing two facilities and eliminating 100 jobs in North Carolina as part of a larger restructuring of its business.
The furniture maker said Wednesday that it will idle two North Wilkesboro facilities and put them up for sale. It will move warehouse and repair functions from those sites to another North Carolina plant, in Hudson. La-Z-Boy is ending production of some of its bedroom furniture at the Hudson facility in the quarter that ends in October in 2014, as it shifts to importing all of its wood furniture.
The company said that its North Carolina facility was too big given the level of demand in the U.S.
It also plans to exit a division that sells furniture to hotels and will put its youth furniture business up for sale.
As a result of these changes, the company expects to take $13 million to $15 million in pre-tax charges, or 15 to 17 cents per share after tax, over the fourth quarter and first half of its next fiscal year.
Shares of the Monroe, Mich.-based company rose 37 cents to close at $24.98 and were unchanged in after-hours trading.

domain: news


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Citibank, which has traditionally catered to large corporations rather than to mom-and-pop stores, is ramping up services for small-business customers, a strategy it hopes will help it win customers from the market leader, American Express Co.
The Citigroup Inc. subsidiary on Monday took the wraps off a product that may become a key weapon in this fight: CitiBusiness Platinum Select MasterCard, the first Citi-branded credit card meant for small businesses. Companies that sign up for the card gain access to a Citibank team of "experts," who can answer questions ranging from how to build a Web site to how to set up an employee benefits program.
Faith Massingale, business manager of the travel and business segment for Citi cards, said there are 20 million small-business owners in the United States, and many of them have been relying on personal credit cards to finance their operations. "The CitiBusiness card was designed to not only attract this dynamic consumer group, but to provide them with the utmost service and crucial resources they need to stay competitive and profitable," she said.
In the greater New York marketplace, Chase Manhattan is the bank with a reputation for serving small and midsize business clients. But Citibank is introducing its small-business card nationally, with an appropriately outsized marketing campaign. Industry experts say the scope of the effort will put Citi in competition with American Express more than with Chase.
"They are in a full-scale assault against Amex in the small-business market," said Bernell Wright, managing partner at Advanced Business Concepts, a consulting firm in New York.
"The small-business market for Citi is starting to become a strategic marketplace," he said. "It's one they haven't been as strong at, and they see the rewards - particularly from these dot-coms that at first look insignificant but then turn out to be big."
Citibank said it will offer its small-business cardholders access to consulting services and product discounts that the bank previously only offered to larger companies. Because of its merger with Travelers, Citi is able to offer such extras as investment services from Salomon Smith Barney.
Other card issuers are trying a similar approach. American Express has long used its marketing might to broker discounts for its customers. U.S. Bancorp, the largest Visa issuer for businesses, is able to offer discounts on products and services that Visa has brokered with different vendors.
Industry experts said Citi's own brand, and its ability to offer virtually every financial service possible, is ample power to catapult it ahead of every bank card issuer, and place it neck-and-neck with long-time leader American Express.
"No one compares with the brand power or economic power of Citi, except Amex," said Charles Wendel, head of Financial Institutions Consulting in New York. "If they commit themselves to the small-business market they can challenge Amex, but that takes time and money. Amex has been doing this for years."
Citi already issues a cobranded small-business Advantage card with American Airlines and an AT&T small-business card that offers telephone access. But analysts said the stand-alone product unveiled Monday marks an increase in Citi's efforts to become a national leader in small-business services.
American Express is not sitting on its laurels. Last month it added another product to its arsenal: Blue for Business, an extension of its flashy hybrid card with a chip and a magnetic stripe, targeted for Internet users.
Blue for Business offers better financial terms than Citi's new small-business card. Blue charges no annual fee and comes with an introductory interest rate of 3.9% for balance transfers and purchases. The rate jumps to prime plus 3.99 percentage points after six months.
CitiBusiness is offering a balance transfer rate of prime plus 4.9 percentage points and a general interest rate of prime plus 6.9 percentage points. Small businesses that apply before Aug. 1 will receive their first card free; additional cards cost $20 a year for the first four, and $5 a year for every card after that.


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AstraZeneca wants to “sharpen focus” on its core areas. Investors know this because the company has told them repeatedly. Read More »
Sep 1, 2015
Cholesterol-lowering medicine is the next point of focus in the debate over prescription-drug prices.
Selling a new car isn’t easy in China these days, with the car market growing at its slowest in six years. Nor is selling a used car. In its first-half results Thursday, China’s largest car-rental firm CAR reported that it sold its used cars at a 0.3% loss. Read More »
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You know it, we know it, Sony knows it -- PlayStation 5 will be revealed in the coming weeks. It feels like everyone is holding their breath in anticipation of a first glimpse at the next-gen console, and all signs point to a reveal event in February. The PS4 was unveiled at its own event back in 2013, and Sony will be planning to replicate that with PS5.
A newly discovered trademark, spotted by the ever-vigilant crew at LetsGoDigital, sees the platform holder registering the PS5 in Switzerland. This trademark was filed just yesterday, 27th January 2020, and the aforementioned site reasons it could be another sign the console will be shown off very soon. It makes sense to us, and tracks with all we've heard from various places over the last few months.
What do you reckon? Is Sony getting its ducks in a row ahead of finally shining a light on PS5, or does this have nothing to do with it? Sound off in the comments below.


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YouTube is the latest company to offer free TV shows with ads. The video giant says you’ll now be able to stream almost 4,000 TV episodes for free, as long as you’re also prepared to watch commercials during the show. Shows available include Hell’s Kitchen, Andromedaand Heartland, and you’ll be able to watch them in the US on the web, mobile devices, and “most connected TVs through the YouTube TV app,” YouTube says in a blog post.
With the new free TV shows, YouTube faces a number of major competitors. One is live TV – by offering free on-demand TV, YouTube is probably hoping you’ll see what’s available on its platform instead of surfing channels to see what else might be.
And there are already plenty of options to stream ad-supported TV for free, including Tubi, Xumo, Plex, Roku, and offerings from Vizio and Samsung – to name a few – so YouTube is lagging behind in gaming. That said, YouTube is also already where a lot of people spend a lot of time watching videos, so it’s not hard to imagine people watching TV shows that they can stream for free while scrolling through other YouTube content.
The free shows could also entice people to leave Roku, a company with which YouTube owner Google has had very public disputes. Roku isn’t standing still, however; according to a November report, it plans to develop more than 50 original shows that could appear on its free, ad-supported Roku channel. If we look at potential users by hardware ownership, then Roku, which says 155 million people live in homes with Roku devices, is much smaller than YouTube. Google last said there are over 3 billion Android devices in the wild, and that’s just a fraction of potential devices that have easy access to YouTube.
YouTube’s free TV shows join the range of free movies with ads available on the platform, which currently include Gone in sixty seconds and Revenge of a Blonde. The company plans to add up to 100 shows and movies every week.


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This is really interesting – State Bank of India has announced that it will soon offer no-frills bank account for needy – which will be used only through mobile phone.
According to this article in telegraph, this project is only for people who earn less than 5000 rupees a month and own a mobile phone (but don’t have a bank account)
The best part is that, you don’t need to go to a bank to open this account – Just approach your nearest grocery store or a phone recharge store, fill up the form and your account will be operational soon.
The Grocer (who will server as business correspondent) will then help customer to do everything from depositing cash, withdrawal, checking account balance through customers mobile phone.
Eko is a national-level business correspondent, which the SBI has enrolled for its financial inclusion project.
“The biggest use of the phone for the customer is for remittance or sending money home — from say Delhi to his village in Jharkhand — without taking the trouble of visiting a bank branch or writing cheques and getting demand drafts made,”
The SBI plans to hire at least 40,000 business correspondents over the next few years. At present, the SBI has tied up with 10 national-level business correspondent organizations. [source]
I think this is what India really needs !


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SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) – More South Koreans are using Naver Corp.’s group-interaction service BAND and Instagram, although Facebook is still the most popular social networking service (SNS) platform in the country, a survey showed Tuesday, signaling a shift in the local SNS landscape.
According to the survey conducted by Digieco, an economic research institute run by mobile carrier KT Corp., and advertising agency Nas Media Corp., 73.8 percent of some 2,000 respondents in all age brackets used Facebook in 2016, slightly down from 77.1 percent from a year earlier.
The rate of Twitter users also dropped from 22.1 percent to 14.7 percent in the same period, the survey showed.
The survey, meanwhile, said 40.1 percent of the respondents used BAND services this year, up from 32 percent a year earlier.
The user rate of Instagram, owned by Facebook, also jumped from 16.7 to 28.1 percent in the same period, the survey showed.
“More people continue to use SNS,” said a KT official, noting that the most preferred SNS platform keeps changing.
By age group, those in their 40s and 50s mostly used KakaoStory, a photo-sharing service operated by Kakao Corp. which can be shared with only authorized acquaintances, it said.
While younger users in their teens and 20s chose global SNS brands, such as Facebook and Twitter, the survey showed.
The survey also showed that 84 percent of the respondents used SNS through their mobile devices while only 1.5 percent used personal computers.
KakaoTalk, a free mobile messenger operated by Kakao with 35 million local users in the country of 50 million, still dominated the mobile messenger market.
The survey showed 98.6 percent of the respondents used KakaoTalk, up from 98.5 percent.


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Manchester United have launched their new home and away kits for 2016/17, with new striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic front and centre.
In a statement, the club said: "adidas and Manchester United have launched the club's new home jersey for the 2016/17 season, taking inspiration from the club's early years as Newton Heath LYR Football Club.
"In the second year of the partnership with Manchester United, adidas has taken cues from the Club's illustrious history, with a two tone red split design evoking the two-tone Newton Heath kit of 1878."
The home kit was officially launched in China during United's 2016 pre-season tour, and it will be worn for the first time when they take on rivals Manchester City in Beijing on Monday, July 25.
Apart from those still resting after Euro 2016, the whole first-team squad was there to pose in the new strip in China, including captain Wayne Rooney.


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Telkom’s wholesale division Openserve has joined the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (ISPA).
This comes as the association celebrates its 25th year of existence this month.
Founded on 6 June 1996, ISPA was established when a handful of ISPs met in an office in Rosebank and agreed to form a new industry body focused on ensuring fair competition and improving local peering.
Its early activities were focused on preventing Telkom from using its monopoly position in the telecoms industry to unfairly compete against the country’s fledgling Internet access providers.
ISPA’s efforts ultimately resulted in the Competition Commission ruling that Telkom’s wholesale and retail businesses must be split, and that it must not give preference to its own retail division when it came to the sale of Internet services.
“Today, Openserve provides services equally to Telkom’s retail division and to other ISPs,” ISPA said.
“It is fitting then that ISPA is now able to welcome Openserve as its newest member.”
Telkom resisted joining ISPA for over two decades, with the company’s CEO Sipho Maseko declaring as recently as 2019 that ISPs are “a relic of the past” in response to questions about its declining fixed ISP business.
Seeing Openserve join South Africa’s oldest association for Internet companies is there a welcome change, especially given that it operates South Africa’s largest fibre network, with over 165,000km of cable in the ground.
Openserve joins Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Seacom as ISPA’s three backbone members — the companies that literally operate the backbones of South Africa’s Internet infrastructure.
ISPA has been recognised as an Industry Representative Body since 2009.
This gives its members special legal protections for third-party traffic passing over their networks.
ISPA said that fair competition and local peering have remained its twin focus pillars.
“Fibre network operators are encouraged to adopt fair competitive practices while ISPA’s INX-ZA division — which has provided 25 years of uninterrupted JINX (Johannesburg Internet Exchange) service — now operates exchanges across nine sites in three SA cities,” the association stated.
“By supporting the operation of JINX, DINX (Durban Internet Exchange) and CINX (Cape Town Internet Exchange), ISPA has helped develop local infrastructure.”
ISPA said that Internet exchanges encouraged local traffic to remain local, which provided a more responsive experience to Internet users.
In addition, ISPA stated it has consistently lobbied for transparency towards consumers, open competition, respect for the privacy of Internet users, and a legislative framework that is consistent with the open standards and collaboration that underpins the global Internet.


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With Wall Street's Linux spark rained out, advocates of the comparatively new operating system have switched to quieter but likely more effective means of conquering the world.
The new approach will be on display this week at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York, where Linux start-ups and computing goliaths will gather to show off their wares.
The Linux operating system, a clone of Unix initiated by Linus Torvalds in 1991, has blossomed into a standard feature in the corporate computer landscape. Its growth went hand in hand with the Internet technology frenzy, but only a handful of companies--notably Red Hat, VA Linux Systems, Andover.net and Cobalt Networks--managed to go public while investor appetite was still voracious.
Now only Red Hat and VA remain independent, and the revolutionary attitude has been replaced by the equivalent of trench warfare. Linux companies now are coaxing new business partnerships, gradually winning over new customers, and doggedly hammering out improvements to the software.
The standard-bearer for the new Linux reality is IBM, in particular President Sam Palmisano. A year ago, Palmisano pushed Big Blue to its current position as one of the loudest and most determined Linux advocates, with the company spreading Linux across all four of its major server lines.
During his opening keynote address Wednesday, Palmisano will declare that the Linux effort has advanced from convincing established computing companies to support the operating system to winning over customers who actually use it, sources familiar with the speech said.
While this message is undeniably self-serving, more independent observers generally agree. Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Milunovich believes Linux has conquered many of its early problems--the scarcity of programs built to run atop it, the immaturity of technical support, its confinement to low-end computers--and now Linux poses a serious threat to Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has declared Linux to be the software giant's No. 1 threat.
Some go even further. The code-sharing, cooperative "open source" programming model that underlies Linux is a "better mousetrap" than the closed-source, proprietary methods employed by Microsoft, Deutsche Banc Alex Brown analyst Phil Rueppel and colleagues said in a 147-page report earlier this month. Specifically, open-source software naturally shifts priorities away from the companies that sell software--Microsoft and Oracle, for example--and toward the customers that use the software.
"From its inception as a school project to its capturing of 30 percent (of server operating system sales) in 10 short years, Linux has proven beyond a doubt that the open-source model can lead to the development of robust technologies faster than in a closed-source model," Rueppel said.
Evidently, many companies agree. Hewlett-Packard plans to announce high-end server software for Linux at the show, and Compaq has its eye on the same market.
Even the National Security Agency has an interest. This month, the secretive federal code-breakers and electronic snoopers hired Secure Computing to bring its high-security features to Linux.
Some consolidation in Linux is taking place as Red Hat's competitors try to keep up in North America and match its expansion abroad, said Giga Information Group analyst Stacey Quandt. "Red Hat and SuSE are rising to the top," while competing Linux sellers Caldera Systems and Turbolinux are faltering.
SuSE, with a solid customer base in German-speaking countries, will have a tough time expanding, she added. "The North American market is a significant challenge given Red Hat's overwhelming market share," Quandt said.
The established presence of Linux is spurring numerous Linux announcements this week, though. Among them:
• Borland will unveil its Delphi programming kit for Linux, called Kylix. The product is designed to let people write software that works with Linux and Windows, sources said. The software has been developed with help from CodeWeavers, a group working to commercialize the Wine software for running Windows software on Linux machines.
• MontaVista Software, one of the more prominent companies working to squeeze Linux into non-PC, "embedded" computing devices, will announce it's signed up to be the exclusive seller of IBM Java software for small Linux gadgets. The company also will declare that its 2000 revenue grew tenfold compared with 1999 and ended up 15 percent higher than the company projected.
• Applied Data Systems will demonstrate its own embedded Linux software, including additions that let Linux systems using Intel's popular StrongArm and XScale chips go into a power-saving "sleep" mode. The company also will show HP's Chai software, a clone of Java, running on its hardware.
• Linux International will "relaunch" itself as the largest Linux industry group.
• Open-source e-commerce software maker Zelerate will announce it has signed VA Linux Systems as a new customer. The company also will announce a new version of its software that includes XML (Extensible Markup Language) support.
• Polyserver will show new clustering software to let one Linux computer take over when any of its nine other comrades fail.
• Argus Systems Group will unveil its PitBull LX software designed to protect Linux computers against attacks.
• BigStorage will unveil its network-attached storage product, called K2. The product, based on Linux, has dual processors, can manage as many as 40 terabytes of data, and has software for taking "snapshots" of files stored on the system.
• An embedded Linux software company called Coventive Technologies will show a Linux-based Internet appliance for watching television or surfing the Net. The company also will show a handheld computer using Linux that will go on sale in China later this year.


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Hershey Co. HSY, -1.53 percent shares fell 1.53 percent to $176.50 on Wednesday, in what turned out to be a rough trading session for the stock market, with the S& P 500 Index SPX, -0.02 percent falling 0.02 percent to 4,400.64 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.36 percent falling 0.36 percent to 34,930.93. Hershey Co. ended the day $5.74 lower than its 52-week high ($182.24) set on July 20th.
Nestle S.A. ADR NSRGY, -0.62 percent declined 0.62 percent to $124.85, Mondelez International Inc. Cl A MDLZ, -2.81 percent fell 2.81 percent to $63.40, and General Mills Inc. GIS, -1.23 percent fell 1.23 percent to $58.82 on Wednesday. The volume of trading (1.1 million) exceeded the 50-day average volume of 820,546.


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Things have been moving fast in the cannabis industry over the past few years. Not only has Canada legalized marijuana, but many U.S. states have as well, with Illinois poised to become the 11th state. The passing of the farm bill late last year opened CBD derived from hemp as an option for companies as well.
The one wrinkle there is that as CBD has not yet been permitted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it’s still technically not permitted within food and beverages in the U.S. The FDA has recently begun hearings on CBD, and while there could be progress on the issue, it’s still likely a long way away from being permitted. Federally, marijuana also remains illegal with no end in sight.
And so as much progress as there has been on cannabis, there are still some big hurdles left. However, one company that is bullish on where the industry is headed is Canopy Growth Corp (TSX:WEED)(NYSE:CGC). In a recent interview, Co-CEO Bruce Linton said his company believes there will be a significant development in the industry within the next 18-24 months.
What could he be alluding to?
While it would be significant, I don’t think he’s talking about the FDA approving CBD. Although it would be a big step for the industry and open up a lot of growth, it’s not really an obstacle today. There’s no shortage of cannabis-infused foods and beverages in the U.S. that have been able to continue to sell their products without a federal agency coming down hard on them for doing so.
Rather, I believe that Linton is referring to the federal legalization of cannabis across the U.S. In about 18 months, we’ll know who the next U.S. president will be, which could be a big turning point for the industry. If a democratic leadership takes control of the White House, it could lead to the legalization of marijuana in very short order, especially as it could be used as a platform to help win votes.
By and large, Democratic candidates have been in favour of legalizing marijuana, and the next federal election could prove to be a big turning point for the industry. With the republicans still in power, however, it’s unlikely that we’ll see anything on that front anytime soon. Linton and Canopy Growth made a big bet with their deal with Acreage Holdings recently, and they wouldn’t have done so blindly without believing that something could be in the works soon.
Former republican speaker John Boehner is, after all, on Acreage’s team and would be well connected to Washington — and thus know how strong the possibility of legalization is. If there’s one thing we’ve come to learn about Linton, it’s that he doesn’t show all his cards and he wouldn’t make a deal with Acreage without having high expectations of something happening to confirm the deal very soon.
If within 24 months we do see legalization take place in the U.S., then that will change the industry in a flash. It’ll open the doors for other industries to enter the mix without fear of legal repercussions. We’ll be off to the races, and Canopy Growth and Acreage will have a significant head start over the competition.


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These 6 Anti-Inflammatory Desserts Are Unbelievably Delicious
Consuming too much sugar, as well as eating a high-calorie diet, can cause inflammation and increase your risk for autoimmune diseases, such as diabetes and Crohn's, according to a new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism. To combat these health issues, researchers emphasize that a low-calorie diet that's low in sugar is key. But that doesn't mean you have to settle for a bowl of fruit when you want something sweet, or swear off indulgences forever.
Instead, indulge in desserts that can ease inflammation. "Foods that are anti-inflammatory generally are antioxidant-rich and supply vitamins and minerals with free radical scavenging capacities such as, but not limited, to vitamin C, E, D, carotenoids, and omega 3s," says Maya Feller, MS, RD, CDN of Maya Feller Nutrition, which is based in Brooklyn, N.Y. "Plants including fruits and vegetables, sea vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds are all great sources of anti-inflammatory foods."
When thinking about the sweet treats you'd like to make from home, opt for recipes featuring nuts and seeds—like Feller's Pineapple-Peanut Nice Cream, featured in her Southern Comfort Food Diabetes Cookbook—and fruits. These are malleable ingredients that can impart rich flavors in any dessert. Looking for more anti-inflammatory dessert ideas? Consider some of our favorite last-course recipes below, all of which are low in refined sugar and contain healthy ingredients.


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Jio will raise the prices of its Rs. 399 Dhan Dhana Dhan plan to Rs. 459 as part of the tariff revision the company had promised last week while announcing its Diwali cashback offer. The new Jio 459 plan will provide users with 1GB of data per day for 84 days, along with free calls and bundled SMS, and access to the company’s apps. Under the tariff revision, the Rs. 399 recharge pack will now provide customers with 1GB data per day and other freebies, but with validity of 70 days, instead of 84 days as was the case earlier. These Jio plans will be effective from October 19 and will apply to both new and existing users.
Validity of the Jio 509 plan will also reduced from 56 days to 49 days for prepaid users. It is not yet clear whether the validity of the postpaid plan at the same price will be impact as well. The plan still provides 2GB of data per day, as well as the standard benefits the company offers in the Rs. 399 and Rs. 459 plans.
Not all plans have become more expensive. The exceptions are the lower-priced plans, particularly the Rs 149 plan that now offers consumers double the data from 2GB to 4GB at the same price.
Weekly Packs: Under these plans, a user can get free voice, SMS, unlimited data (0.15 GB daily) for Rs 52 for a week (7 days) or Rs 98 for 2 weeks (14 days).
*Unlimited data signifies Daily Limit at High Speed, followed by unlimited at 64 Kbps.


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One million users have downloaded the app, and by the end of 2015 HotelQuickly hopes to grow the NZ userbase to 100,000. There are 407 three to five star participating hotels across 17 New Zealand cities, with targets to grow this to more than 600 by close of 2015.Services such as travel account for the largest category of expenditure via mobile devices in New Zealand, with an estimated $2.2 billion spent on services in 2014 and the mobile commerce market is seeing no signs of slowing.
As 83 per cent of New Zealanders have smartphones and tourism is NZ’s largest earning industry, HotelQuickly is expected to have a rapid take up.
“The increased use of smartphones is changing the way consumers make purchase decisions, the immediacy of mobile encourages impulse purchasing, especially when large discounts are offered,” says CMO and co-founder Christian Mischler..
“Our application acts like a private sales channel for hotels to sell off distressed inventory and bring up their occupancy. Hotels are happy to grant big discounts for these rooms that would otherwise go unsold. This creates a win-win situation for hotels and guests: hotels get additional revenue, guests get fantastic deals at great hotels.”
HotelQuickly launched in March 2013. In its first year of operation, it partnered with more than 2000 hotels across 12 operating countries in APAC, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.


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Food truck season has arrived in Toronto and this year there are a number of new trucks on the road. These trucks are bringing pierogies, arepas and more to Toronto’s street food scene.
Here’s a round-up of new food trucks to track down in Toronto this year.
Little Havana Cafe
If you’ve been looking for authentic Cuban coffee in Toronto, look no further. This food truck is serving drinks out of a renovated 55 year old trailer. The menu features coffee based drinks, virgin mojitos and pastries.
This truck will satisfy cravings for fresh made pasta, fried zucchini and tiramisu.
This Mediterranean Mexican fusion food truck does a fawaffle which is basically a waffle cone made out of falafel batter filled with various meat and vegetables.
Toronto finally has a pierogi food truck. This one has an eclectic menu that includes cheeseburger and dessert pierogies.
The city is now blessed with a second Venezuelan arepa food truck. In addition to tasty arepas this truck also does sweetcorn crepes..
Photo by Jesse Milns.


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Rep. George Santos’ marketing campaign committee is going through new questions from federal regulators after submitting paperwork itemizing a brand new treasurer who says he by no means took the job.
The Federal Election Fee sent a letter Thursday to the Devolder Santos for Congress marketing campaign searching for readability on the switch. It’s the newest scrutiny for the New York congressman who has been caught fabricating many parts of his life story.
The letter mentioned the first-year Republican’s marketing campaign “may have failed to include the true, correct, or complete treasurer information” on paperwork Wednesday itemizing Thomas Datwyler as its new treasurer and custodian of data.
5 different political fundraising committees linked to Santos acquired the identical letters after they, too, filed paperwork Wednesday listing Datwyler as their new treasurer.
The marketing campaign and committees have till March 2 to reply. In the event that they fail to take action, paperwork itemizing Datwyler as treasurer shall be positioned within the “unverified” part of the FEC’s web site and the committees may face further enforcement motion.
If Santos’ marketing campaign is discovered to have knowingly and willfully made any “materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” on its paperwork, it may probably face prison prices, the FEC’s letter mentioned.
A message searching for remark was left with a marketing campaign lawyer.
Devolder Santos for Congress filed a brand new assertion of group on Wednesday itemizing Datwyler as treasurer and custodian of data, changing Nancy Marks, who had held each positions since Santos first ran for Congress in 2020.
The switch got here amid lingering questions on irregularities within the committee’s monetary experiences and the source of Santos’ wealth.
Datwyler mentioned by way of a lawyer, Derek Ross, that he had declined the job and was not conscious that he could be listed as treasurer on the marketing campaign’s filings, which included what it mentioned was his digital signature, alongside together with his electronic mail and mailing addresses.
“On Monday we informed the Santos campaign that Mr. Datwyler would not be serving as treasurer,” Datwyler’s lawyer, Derek Ross, mentioned in an announcement. “It appears there’s a disconnect between that conversation and the filings (Wednesday) which we did not authorize.”
Below federal laws, a marketing campaign committee can’t increase or spend cash except it has a treasurer. The treasurer collects all contributions — and solely the treasurer, or an individual designated by the treasurer, can approve marketing campaign bills.


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- Mexican Bitcoin trading has begun on the massive e-commerce site Mercado Libre.
- Mercado Libre`s action follows a downturn in crypto markets.
- Several businesses in Mexico have adopted crypto in their models.
The Latin American e-commerce behemoth Mercado Libre’s financial wallet section, Mercado Pago, has announced the opening of bitcoin trading services in Mexico.
This launch has enabled them to buy, sell, and store Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as to obtain Mercado Libre’s own currency, Mercadocoin. The business has already started offering this type of service to one million consumers in Brazil.
The firm hopes to provide Mexicans who are currently consumers of the company with more alternatives by bringing this product to them. Pedro Rivas, CEO of Mercado Pago Mexico, commented on this:
“Through this new service, we seek to give millions of Mexicans access to the crypto world in an educational, safe, and simple way, in order to generate greater technological inclusion.”
Mercado Libre`s action follows a downturn in the cryptocurrency markets earlier this year. This further witnessed the collapse of industry titans like Celsius and Voyager. Fernando Yunes, the country head for MercadoLibre, asserted that the firm was putting more of an emphasis on long-term potential than on short-term changes in the market.
The popularity of cryptocurrencies has been slowly growing in Mexico. Other businesses have also already incorporated them into their individual business models as a form of payment. For instance, on April 13, the meal delivery service Rappi announced the start of a trial program to accept crypto payments for its services.
Sen. Indira Kempis of Mexico submitted a measure in July that would make bitcoin legal cash. This follows an effort to increase financial inclusion and increase financial knowledge among the populace.
Recommended News :
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Do you have a great idea?
How can you turn it into something real you can sell, without someone stealing it?
How, once it’s in the market, do you prevent someone from copying it?
Protecting your intellectual property (IP) before you have built a business and completed your first sale presents massive challenges.
Protecting your IP once you have built a business is equally challenging.
Scroll down for quotes from the audio below.
Is your idea patentable?— Pavlo Phitids, Aurik Business Accelerator
Have you got the money to defend your patent?— Pavlo Phitids, Aurik Business Accelerator
Can you bring your idea to market?— Pavlo Phitids, Aurik Business Accelerator
Banks don’t fund ideas.— Pavlo Phitids, Aurik Business Accelerator
The 159-year-old icon failed to evolve. Bruce Whitfield interviews Aurik Business Accelerator founder Pavlo Phitidis.
The Money Show’s Bruce Whitfield interviews Aurik Business Accelerator founder Pavlo Phitidis.
Small business guru Pavlo Phitidis on how to protect your intellectual property from corporate theft.
Small business expert Pavlo Phitidis listens to a number of ideas and puts them to the test.
Aurik Business Incubator Director and CEO Pavlo Phitidis takes listeners’ calls and analyses their products/service ideas.
Do you have an idea that could be worth a fortune? Here's how to turn that idea into something real you can sell.
No official date has been set for the roll out of SA's new number plate legislation, but here's what you need to know so long.
Capetonians are pulling out hot water bottles and mittens as a cold front is predicted to make landfall on Thursday morning.
A statement released by Home Affairs confirms that Ajay Gupta only has a permanent resident permit and is not a citizen of SA.
Author and marketing expert, Khaya Dlanga says the OUTsurance video shows that people who are making decisions are out of touch.
If you have the ability to stop something bad being published on the group then do it, says social media expert.
Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize says her department will respond to all Zimbabweans under special dispensation.
Wits associate professor of economics Christopher Malikane speaks to Azania Mosaka about the term that is being bandied about.
Want (or need) a new car? Dale Scorer (a wealth manager at AlphaWealth) reckons you should consider leasing.
WIN R2000! But only if you can prove you're a whiz of the MTN Biz Quiz by answering the following three questions...


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Adweek's annual #Brandweek summit will explore the ideas behind breakthrough successes, discuss solutions to pressing challenges and explore new opportunities in the Metaverse. Join leaders from Alo Yoga, Hyundai Motor America, Frito-Lay and more, Sept. 12–16 in Miami. Sign up early to save.
Since the Afropunk Festival debuted in Brooklyn in 2005, it has grown into an international touchstone for the Black community to gather for weekends of live music, art, fashion and film by Black artists and creators. 2020 was poised to be the festival’s biggest year yet, with stops in Paris; Bahia, Brazil; Johannesburg, South Africa; Atlanta and Brooklyn.


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Late in 2016, Starbucks Coffee showed signs of slowed growth in the 4th quarter. The company posted a 3% same-store earnings growth, missing expectations of 4% set by analysts. In terms of earnings, this is a huge miss for a company that planned rapid expansion in 2016-2017. Starbucks has spread its corporate tentacles across Europe and Asia and has broadened its market specifically in China, where it believes it has the most potential for growth.
Starbucks U.S. growth has been relatively flat for a year, as has its stock price. But in early 2017, signs of falling profit margins have surfaced. Starbucks dramatically lowered its revenue growth projections, down from its usual 15-21% to 8-10% in 2017. This year, most of the company’s profitability won’t come from the U.S., but from China. Starbucks continues to see its U.S. market share chipped away. Meanwhile, investors have begun to doubt its strategy. Starbucks has shifted dramatically to mobile order-and-pay, likely a response to the declining traffic they have experienced in-stores. The company has also tried to expand its upscale line of coffee, called Reserve Roastery, which offers an expensive menu to consumers. Starbucks may be tapping into an upscale line due to increasing competition from Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s.
These poor indicators preceded CEO Howard Schultz’s press release that resulted in calls for a boycott.
Starbucks Dug Its Own, Permanent Grave
Arguably one of the worst PR moves in recorded history happened on January 29th, 2017, when Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz came out in opposition to President Donald Trump’s travel ban. Howard enraged millions of Americans when he released a press statement that read the following:
Hiring Refugees: We have a long history of hiring young people looking for opportunities and a pathway to a new life around the world. This is why we are doubling down on this commitment by working with our equity market employees as well as joint venture and licensed market partners in a concerted effort to welcome and seek opportunities for those fleeing war, violence, persecution and discrimination. There are more than 65 million citizens of the world recognized as refugees by the United Nations, and we are developing plans to hire 10,000 of them over five years in the 75 countries around the world where Starbucks does business. And we will start this effort here in the U.S. by making the initial focus of our hiring efforts on those individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel in the various countries where our military has asked for such support.”
For many, the offense was that Starbucks, which has profited billions of dollars from U.S. consumers, didn’t offer to hire 10,000 U.S. veterans, disabled citizens, or another group of Americans looking for work. There is a very large market of U.S. citizens who are out of jobs or out the workforce completely. A decent gesture would be to hire some of the people who have spent, collectively, billions of dollars on Starbucks’ horribly overpriced coffee, rather than hiring refugees who have never tasted Starbucks in their lives.
However, that’s not what Starbucks did. The company went full social justice warrior in its press release, criticizing Donald Trump for not helping people who are non-U.S. citizens. Howard, with a “heavy heart,” says:
I write to you today with deep concern, a heavy heart and a resolute promise. Let me begin with the news that is immediately in front of us: we have all been witness to the confusion, surprise and opposition to the Executive Order that President Trump issued on Friday, effectively banning people from several predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, including refugees fleeing wars. I can assure you that our Partner Resources team has been in direct contact with the partners who are impacted by this immigration ban, and we are doing everything possible to support and help them to navigate through this confusing period.”
After outrage and a boycott threat, Howard added a footnote at the bottom of his letter about how Starbucks supports U.S. veterans:
A week following Starbucks’ PR debacle, the Motley Fool published an article stating that in-store traffic slowed dramatically and that the company’s double-digit profit goals for 2017 are threatened as a result. A boycott of Target over its transgender bathroom policy has proven to be highly successful, collapsing the company’s profitability margins down 43% in the fourth quarter 2016 with a rough 2017 outlook. It appears Starbucks is headed for a storm in 2017 as it also faces a boycott.


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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
SkyeTek Updates Leadership with Promotions, New Hire
SkyeTek Inc., a manufacturer of embedded radio frequency identification products, reported Tuesday that it has made three changes to its executive staff. The Westminster, Colo.-based company said it has promoted Martin Payne to senior vice president of sales and marketing and Wally Cooledge to vice president of sales for North America. SkyeTek also said it has hired Jeff Battin as vice president of engineering. In his new role, Payne adds worldwide sales and business development to his existing responsibilities of marketing, product management and sales operations, SkyeTek said. Cooledge, the company added, will rely upon his previous experience as sales director for the Western United States to manage SkyeTek’s largest sales region. And Battin hails from SmartSynch, where he held a similar title after stints with Harris Corp., Wavtrace, Motorola and AT&T.


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Republicans in Congress who spearheaded a repeal of the broadband privacy rules are now asking the Federal Communications Commission to police Internet service providers' data policies.
In a letter sent to the FCC late last week, the lawmakers argue that the Telecommunications Act empowers the agency to protect consumers against "unjust and unreasonable practices."
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (Oregon), Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chair Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) and 48 other Republicans argue in the letter that the telecom law currently "provides the necessary authority to protect consumers in a similar manner to how the FTC protects consumers under its authority to prevent unfair and deceptive acts and practices."
They go on to call the FTC the "standard-bearer for striking the right balance of consumer protection within a pro-innovative construct."
The FCC's rules -- which a Republican-controlled Congress invalidated last month -- would have required broadband carriers to obtain consumers' opt-in consent before drawing on their Web-browsing data or app usage history for ad targeting.
By contrast, the FTC recommends only that Web companies allow people to opt out of the collection and sharing of most types of online browsing data. (The FTC suggests that companies obtain opt-in consent before sharing a narrow category of "sensitive" data -- including health information and precise location data.)
The repeal of the FCC's privacy rules is unpopular with the public, according to a recent survey by YouGov, which found that the vast majority of Americans wanted President Donald Trump to veto the repeal. The federal rollback also prompted lawmakers in states like Minnesota to consider passing their own pro-privacy laws.


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Earlier this week Confidenti@l reported that the owners of the award-winning Financial District bar, The Dead Rabbit, believe Icelandic businessmen are ripping them off by opening a watering hole with the same name in Reykjavik.
Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry told us they were even considering taking legal action.
Now the businessmen in question have shot back.
"We are not stealing or imitating anything," Ingimarsson wrote to Confidenti@l, "Yes we are calling our bar The Dead Rabbit but that's it."
In an email signed by Ingimarsson and his business partner Andrés Þór Björnsson he admitted they had visited New York "to take a look at some bars and restaurants for inspiration" and had "spent many hours in the Dead Rabbit and a lot of money because we liked it and it earned huge respect in our minds."
However, he told us their own yet-to-open bar will be nothing like the downtown watering hole.
"The design is different, the atmosphere will be different, our logo looks nothing like theirs and we are definitely not going to have a huge cocktail menu," he said.
"They have no idea what our bar is going to look like or what we are going to serve there. Nobody does," added Ingimarsson.
He said they even intend to invite Muldoon and McGarry to the opening party of their own Dead Rabbit to prove "we are not on a mission to take their place."


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Samsung Galaxy S III gets an update that adds brightness control in notification panel
Samsung has released a software update for their Galaxy S III smartphone.
Samsung has not revealed anything about the changes though one feature has been revealed by online sources.
The company has added a slider to control the brightness of the display in the notification dropdown.
This is a useful feature to have which makes the brightness setting more accessible.
Several reviews have reported that the phone has a glitch with the auto setting and brightness is changed rather frequently without any major change in the surrounding.
- key specs
- reviews • 25
- Operating systemAndroid (Ice Cream Sandwich [4.0])
- Screen size4.8 inches
- Internal memory16 GB
- Camera8 megapixels
- Dimensions5.17 x 2.51 x 0.34 in
- Weight4.69 oz
- ReleasedJune 21, 2012


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Acura has announced new rental rates for the 2021 TLX just in time for the holidays.
The 2021 Acura TLX 2.0T start-up level is currently available for $ 369 / month for 36 months with $ 3,899 upon signing and an annual mileage of 10,000 miles (16,000 km). The monthly payment is reduced to $ 339 for 36 months for current Acura owners and those who skip ships from a competing brand. Cars Direct notes that retailers may also choose to cover the first month̵
See also: The Deceiving Design Detail Allf Allhe All-New 2021 Acura TLX
This lease agreement makes the 2021 TLX barely cheaper than the 2021 Lexus IS 300, which is available for $ 339 / month for 36 months with $ 3,999 due upon signing. The Acura offer will be available in the US until January 4, 2021.
However, TLX tracks IS in terms of financing offers. Acura’s economy stands at 1.9% in April for 60 months and can be combined with the brand’s loyalty bonus of $ 1000. By comparison, Lexus is offering a 0% APR deal for 60 months for IS, plus a $ 1500 bonus for current customers.
All 2021 Acura TLX models currently available are sold with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that produces 272 hp at 6,500 rpm and a torque of 280 lb-ft (379 Nm) between 1600 rpm and 4500 rpm. Connected to this engine is a 10-speed automatic transmission that drives the front wheels. However, customers can choose the carmaker’s latest generation SH-AWD torque weighting system if they prefer to have power sent through all four wheels.
Next spring, the top-ranked TLX Type S will join the series with a brand new turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 with a nominal speed of 355 hp and torque of 354 lb-ft (480 Nm). This version is sold exclusively with a 10-speed automatic transmission and the SH-AWD system.


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Cycling and motoring experts Halfords has reopened another of its Nottinghamshire stores with new measures in place to protect customers and staff.
The vast majority of its stores and autocentres have been open since the essential retailer rules came into force as both cycle shops and garages have been classed as such. But the company is now in the process of re-opening another 12.
Further precautionary measures in place at the store include the introduction of a zero contact policy, the team have stopped taking cash payments and customers can no longer browse the aisles. Instead Halfords is providing services and product collection from the front of the store.
Halfords is not the only store to reopen recently and there are lots of other shops, businesses and food outlets looking at how they can start serving customers again.
Seventeen Costa Coffee drive-thrus reopened across the country this weekend along with 12 stores doing deliveries only.
This includes the drive-thru branch in Sutton Road, Mansfield, which will now be open daily from 8am to 4pm.
The rest of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire may soon be able to get their coffee fix too however as Costa CEO Jill McDonald said the coffee chain will be increasing the number of drive-thru lanes and stores open for delivery via Uber Eats.
The fast-food chain is reopening 15 restaurants for delivery in May.
The sites re-opening have NOT yet been revealed by McDonald's, so we can still live in hope.
McDonald’s CEO UK and Ireland, Paul Pomroy, said: "On May 13, we will reopen 15 of our restaurants in the UK; this will be in a limited capacity with delivery only.
"The restaurants involved will be announced next week as we work through inviting our employees back to work and supporting our delivery partners to prepare for our gradual return. "
McDonald's will implement a string of new safety measures in restaurants, including perspex screens and floor markings, additional protective equipment including non-medical grade face masks and social distancing measures for delivery and service partners.
Customers will be able to order the menu items through Uber Eats and Just Eat.
The high street favourite closed orders and browsing on TKMaxx.com on March 26, due to the coronavirus pandemic but it has now re-opened its website.
Although it's stores remain closed for now, shoppers can order clothing, skincare and beauty items online however, there is a limit on how many shoppers can place orders each day.
Pret A Manger
Another 20 branches of Pret A Manger re-opened this week bringing the total to 30.
Ten branches opened as a trial on April 16 for takeaway and delivery.
At the moment all re-opened branches are in London but Pret chief executive Pano Christou said: "We recently reopened 10 shops close to hospitals and restarted food donations to our charity partners.
"I believe we’ve found a way to operate that reflects Government guidance and looks after our teams and customers."
So you never know, you could be chowing down on salad box soon.
The chicken giant revealed it would reopen 100 branches for delivery only through partners including Just Eat.
Unbelievably they choose Leicester and Tamworth as two location but not Nottingham.
All 900 branches closed shortly after the UK went into lockdown and are now reopening just for delivery.
It follows similar moves by Burger King, Nandos and Pret with McDonalds saying it is looking at how to safely reopen and Wetherspoon saying it plans to reopen pubs early this summer.
Deliveries will be made through Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats, so fingers crossed we could be in the next wave.
Wetherspoons is starting to plan for a reopening of its pubs and hotels “in or around June”, the company announced.
The popular chain closed all of its branches on March 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since it's closure the vast majority of Wetherspoons staff was furloughed.
All B&Q stores have now reopened across the UK.
Posting on their social media page, B&Q wrote: "All our UK stores are open but with strict social distancing measures in place. Help us make your experience as safe and enjoyable as possible by following these guidelines. Help us to help you - socially distanced shopping at B&Q."
The guidelines include restricting the number of customers in the store at any one time, with under 16s not allowed in store.
Like supermarkets, B&Q will implement a designated queuing area outside with two metre markers.
While perspex screens have been installed at the checkouts.
Following a successful trial across 20 stores, Homebase reopened another 50 last week and yesterday its remaining UK stores were all reopened for customers to shop.
CEO Damian McGloughlin said: "It has taken a tremendous amount of hard work and commitment from our teams across all parts of the business, to ensure we are ready to safely welcome customers back through our doors. I'm extremely grateful for the dedication shown by every single team member, and to our customers, for the huge support and understanding."
This is the guidance being given to stores looking to reopen...
The British Retail Consortium has sent out new guidance to its members as a number of chains begin to open or at least set out plans to reopen.
The guidance covers all retail premises - essential and non-essential - to help those already reopening and those planning to reopen once the lockdown regulations are eased.
The new rules are designed to keep customers and staff safe in a bid to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
The recommended measures include limiting entry and exit points, using floor markings to outline social distancing and keeping changing rooms closed.
The guidance also suggests installing cleaning stations with hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes at the front of stores.


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Starbucks built an empire pepping us up. Now it will feather its nest chilling us out. While it is not the first coffee chain to jump into alcohol sales — Xando did over a decade ago— Starbucks will certainly be the largest. And Starbucks is ready to turn on the taps.
Starbucks, which has been testing evening alcohol at 40 locations in Chicago, Atlanta and Southern California, is ready to dramatically expand the program to thousands of stores nationwide, Bloomberg reports. The experiment began with alcohol sales at one Seattle Starbucks in 2010. The results have been positive. “We’ve tested it long enough in enough markets — this is a program that works,” Chief Operating Officer Troy Alstead told Bloomberg. “As we bring the evening program to stores, there’s a meaningful increase in sales during that time of the day.”
The rollout will take several years, according to Alstead, and will not fit at all locations. There are 11,500 Starbucks stores in the U.S.
Perhaps you'll be able to order your nightcap before you get to your local Starbucks. Earlier this month, Starbucks said it would soon test a way for customers to order items ahead of time with their smartphones.


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The new service, which is free for Samsung smartphone owners, follows the introduction of Milk Music earlier this year.
Caterpillar's CAT B15Q smartphone takes a beating without being bulky, but a poor display sours the experience.
The Wireless Speaker Water Bottle offers life's vital fluid and Bluetooth connectivity. The water bottle has a carabiner clip for easy portability.
For the last few years 4K "Ultra HD" televisions have been displayed at CES, but in 2015 they'll dominate -- not just on the show floor, but on showroom floors everywhere throughout the year.
The $149.99 Kyocera Hydro Icon is waterproof, but inconsistent call quality holds it back.
Brian Krzanich has yet to determine what he wants to achieve in the smartphone business, but he sees opportunities outside the Western world.
These two new gadgets are designed specifically for the 65-and-older set.
A Japanese creative agency has used a CNC router to create ice cubes in the shape of guitars, buildings, and even a space shuttle. Pour yourself a drink, put on your best lounge music, and cruise through this gallery of ice that makes any cocktail extra nice.
Featuring an easy-to-use design, the Discovery Series Sous Vide Immersion Circulator by PolyScience is designed to introduce anyone to sous vide cooking.
What do we expect at 2015's first major tech show? A lot of companies striving to shore up against what's likely to be one of the biggest product launches of the year. That, and a bit of a waiting game, too.


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Daniel Ek, co-founder and CEO of the music streaming service Spotify, was once hailed as the music industry’s destroyer. Now, many are calling him that industry’s saviour.
A Head for Business
With a real-time net worth of $2.8 Billion on the Forbes list, Ek was making shrewd business moves as young as 13, when he charged his first client $100 to create a website. He charged his next client twice that amount. Several successful sites later, Ek’s asking price had become $5,000 per site.
Eventually, his earnings were an astounding $50,000 per month. By the age of 18, Ek was managing a team of 25 people. Five years later, the young man from Stockholm was a self-made millionaire.
But all that money did not make him happy. “I started thinking about what truly mattered to me,” he said in a 2013 interview, “and I realised that there were two things in my life that had always been really impressive, which were music and technology.”
Thinking Outside the Music Box
The idea for Spotify came to Ek in 2002, when he was 19, after the peer-to-peer music service Napster shut down and Kazaa (another illegal site) took over as the most popular place to pirate music.
“You can never legislate away from piracy,” he says. “Laws can definitely help, but it doesn’t take away the problem. The only way to solve the problem was to create a service that was better than piracy and at the same time compensates the music industry – that gave us Spotify.”
In April of 2006, Ek incorporated Spotify AB with long-time business associate Martin Lorentzon. On October 7, 2008, the partners launched Spotify Technology SA in Stockholm, Sweden. However, due to difficulty obtaining international licenses for music, it would be another three years before Spotify was able to launch in the United States.
Today, the music streaming service is available in much of North and South America, most of Europe, parts of Asia, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, streaming music services such as Spotify make up almost two-thirds of industry revenue and nearly all its growth. In 2017, Billboard magazine named Daniel Ek the most powerful person in the music business.
Spotify currently provides access to more than 30 million songs, has nearly 160 million monthly users, and more than 70 million paying subscribers. There are some analysts who feel Spotify could double its number of premium subscribers by 2020.
Spotify Goes Public
April of 2018 began with a flourish for the music streaming service. On April 2, 2018, the day before Spotify went public on the New York Stock Exchange, Ek posted a letter on the Spotify website. (Click here to read that letter in full.) In it, he spoke of Spotify’s mission, “To unlock the potential of human creativity – by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.”
The following day, on April 3, Spotify began public trading on the NYSE. On April 4, Spotify’s value was pegged at $25 billion. Ek, who owns roughly 9% of Spotify, has about $2.3 billion worth of Spotify stock; Lorentzon, approximately $3.1 billion. The stock market debut was undoubtedly music to the ears of Ek and Lorentzon. However, many in the music business are still holding their breath as labels, artists, and executives all wait to see what the outcome will be for Spotify, and how the broader industry be affected by this growing wrinkle.
What’s in a Name?
Destroyer? Saviour? Whatever.
Though Daniel Ek’s music streaming service may have changed the way people access, create, and listen to an art form that has been around for thousands of years, Spotify’s forward-thinking CEO simply says: “I’m not an inventor. I just want to make things better.”
Peter Campbell | Contributing Writer


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Texas State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. introduced a bill this week to tax certain beverages, claiming that the tax will help clear up the state’s budget and slim down its residents. When we hear about legislation that would add a discriminatory tax on beverages, we want to be sure to let our readers know why it’s not right to single out our products.
First of all, people can make their own decisions on what’s best for their families. They don’t want government telling them what to eat or drink by taxing common grocery items like beverages. Hard-working families are holding their own in this challenging economy, but they can’t afford higher prices at the grocery store. A new, discriminatory tax on certain beverages would squeeze low- and middle-class family budgets and hurt the most those who can least afford it.
And we know that taxes don’t make people healthy. We’ve blogged before to let our readers know that diet and exercise do that. Obesity is a serious and complex problem that requires comprehensive solutions. It cannot be solved by simplistic approaches that single out particular foods or beverages. Education about diet and exercise is the most effective way to help people lead a healthy, balanced and active lifestyle.
As we’ve mentioned before, singling out one item in the grocery cart for an additional tax is discriminatory and regressive – and it makes no sense. In fact, sugar-sweetened beverages are just a small part of the American diet—only 7 percent. That means that 93 percent of the average American’s calories come from other sources.
The beverage industry is working to be part of the solution to obesity by taking bold actions. We have cut the number of overall beverage calories produced for the marketplace by 21 percent from 1998 to 2008, due in part to industry’s innovation in bringing more zero-calorie, low-calorie and reduced-portion choices to market.
With our national School Beverage Guidelines, we removed-full-calorie soft drinks from all schools and replaced them with more lower-calorie, smaller-portion options. In fact, there has been an 88 percent reduction in beverage calories shipped to schools since 2004. And we are adding new labels to the front of every can, bottle and pack we produce, and displaying the total calories per container on beverages 20 ounces or smaller. By providing calorie information at consumers’ fingertips at every point of purchase, we’re making it easier for Texans, and all consumers, to make informed choices so they can make the selection that is right for them.
Reducing the deficit in Texas is important, but reaching into Texans' grocery carts and placing the burden on the backs of hard-working families is not the right way to handle it.


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So, now Apple has acquired the startup and now, the entire Buddybuild team will join their hands with the engineers in Xcode engineering group at Apple to "build wonderful developer tools for the entire iOS community", with Buddybuild being rolled into Xcode itself. Apple tells TechCrunch that the team (currently employing around 40 or so engineers) will stay put in BC, a fact that the startup celebrated by noting that it's "always been proud to be a Canadian company".
Buddybuild's service will continue to be available to existing customers as a standalone product through the company's site - though new customers will no longer be accepted through that portal, beginning today.
Storm Eleanor: Warning for wind gusts of 80-90mph
The Environment Agency warned earlier that strong winds and high tides could bring coastal flooding from Tuesday until Thursday. At 6pm on Tuesday, Met Eireann warned of increasingly strong winds and gusts that are battering the country. .
Some Android developers vented their frustration on Twitter, especially in light of the relative short notice.
Under the acquisition, Buddybuild will be integrated into Xcode, which is Apple's suite of development tools for iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.
This acquisition is similar to the move of Apple when it acquired TestFlight in 2014. The Apple acquisition is really exciting for the Apple fans amid legal troubles and iOS issues in the recent past. Now that same scenario is playing out all over again.
Russian Daily Oil Output Edges Up in 2017 to 30-Year High
If the deal holds until the end of this year, Russia's oil production growth could stall, considering its commitment to the pact. October U.S crude production rose 167,000 barrels per day to 9.64 million bpd, according to the EIA's monthly production report.
With the arrival of the iPhone X and all the new features that come with it, including the TrueDepth camera and the augmented reality technology that Apple is investing in, it only makes sense that it would want to make the jobs of developers as easy as possible. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that whichever service they switch to will not ultimately be bought up as well. As per reports, the company is working on a new unified code base in order to make things convenient for the developers to come up with the Mac versions of the apps. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhones, iPads, and other gadgets this holiday season, they naturally turned to the one place they can find the best ways to use those devices: the App Store.
Buddybuild was established in 2015 by former Amazon employees Dennis Pilarinos and Christopher Stott. Buddybuild had raised $8.8 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, First Round Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Amplify Partners and a number of individual investors, including Mike Vernal, Dave Johnson, Steve Garrity and Douglas Purdy. On paper, at least, Buddybuild would add to what TestFlight now offers with a deeper range of developer options and support for app developers covering Apple's range of mobile operating systems.
The company advisor is Stewart Butterfield, and its most prominent client is Slack.
India's December manufacturing PMI sees fastest growth in five years
In response to greater inflows of new business , job creation quickened to the greatest since August 2012. Concerns over relatively subdued client demand and government policy changes dampened confidence.
Buddybuild, as part of the deal, will discontinue its service for Alphabet's GOOGL Android app development starting Mar 1, 2018.


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When you think of Porsche, the first model you think of is probably the 911. But judging by the bottom line, Porsche is an SUV company — and the brand's most important car is the Macan crossover, Porsche's best-selling car by far. After all, Porsche sells more Macans than 911s, 718s, and Taycans combined.
We've known for some time that Porsche will launch the next-generation Macan as an electric car, a strong commitment to the EV future. That SUV is set to debut in 2023. And now, Porsche has announced that "highly camouflaged" test versions of it are leaving the carmaker's facility for the first time.
Details revealed about the new Macan are scarce, but Porsche did offer a few tidbits with these "spy photos." Porsche says the electric Macan will be the first vehicle launched on VW Group's PPE, or Premium Performance Electric, platform, which will underpin several mass-market EV cars and crossovers for Porsche and Audi. (The Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT use a seperate architecture, the high-performance J1 platform.)
The electric Macan, like the Taycan, will offer 800-volt electricals for faster charging. And Porsche says it will be the "sportiest model in the segment," presumably referring to luxury compact crossovers, and offer "best-in-class performance."
Porsche also confirmed that the Macan will not go entirely EV. The carmaker says it will launch an updated version of the current internal-combustion Macan later this year. That model will sell alongside the EV, to better suit all tastes.
That said, Porsche buyers' tastes may be changing, and they are the sort of buyers who can and will pay a premium for EVs. In Q1 2021, Porsche sold 2,008 Taycans in the U.S., more units than the 718 and the Panamera combined. Give the market a couple more years. Add in that the electric Macan boasts a popular crossover body style and sits at the more affordable end of the luxury car market, and Porsche may have a major hit on its hands.


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Hyundai Motor sells less but makes more in Q1
The Korean automaker’s revenue came to 30.3 trillion won ($24 billion) during the January-March period, recording a year-on-year increase of 10.6 percent. Its net profit posted 1.8 trillion won, a 16.8 percent year-on-year jump.
Both figures beat the market forecasts compiled by FnGuide of 29.8 trillion won in revenue and 1.5 trillion won in net profit.
“Although a shortage of automotive semiconductors and other components lead to sales deduction in the first quarter, operating profit increased thanks to the improved sales situation in which Genesis models and SUVs were sold more, on top of the favorable exchange rate,” Hyundai Motor said in a release Monday.
“Business uncertainty is expected to continue this year as the chip shortage is showing slower-than-expected recovery and the supplies of other components are being disrupted as well due to lockdowns in some parts of China.”
The business environment for automakers including Hyundai Motor was dismal in the first quarter following the onset of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on top of a continued shortage of chips and key components.
Hyundai Motor sold 902,945 units in the first quarter, 9.7 percent less than the same period last year.
Its domestic sales came to 152,098 units, recording an 18 percent year-on-year drop. Its overseas sales came to 750,847, or 7.8 percent less than the first quarter of last year.
"Risk grew in the first quarter due to conflicts in Russia," said Seo Gang-hyun, Hyundai Motor's chief financial officer. "Hyundai Motor's sales in Russia decreased by 25 percent in the first quarter."
Sales of cars in Russia account for approximately 5 percent of Hyundai Motor's global sales. It also runs a factory in St. Petersburg that has an annual production capacity of 230,000 units.
The St. Petersburg factory has been shut down since March as its parts supply was disrupted due to the conflict. The Korean automaker said it has set up a contingency plan to respond flexibly to changing conditions in Russia. Parts that used to be exported to Russia will be redirected to Hyundai Motor's other factories, the carmaker said.
In order to protect the profitability of its Russian corporation, Hyundai Motor said it will reduce the operation cost of its factory and downsize its incentives and marketing costs.
Despite the lingering risks, however, Hyundai Motor expects solid demand for cars for the duration of the year as the demand for cars from last year remains unresolved due to the supply disruption.
"As of March, there are some 520,000 cars waiting to be delivered to customers, which is 29 percent more than the previous year," said Koo Za-yong, vice president at Hyundai Motor.
The carmaker said it will maintain its goal of improving its annual revenue by 13 to 14 percent for 2022, which was announced early this year. It also said it is aiming for an operating profit rate of 5.5 to 6.5 percent for this year.
Hyundai Motor shares closed 1.11 percent higher than the previous trading day on Monday at 182,000 won per share.
Kia's earnings hovered over market expectations as well, with its revenue at 18.4 trillion won, a 10.7 percent year-on-year increase, and net coming in at 1 trillion won, a 0.2 percent drop.
BY JIN EUN-SOO [firstname.lastname@example.org]


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NY since the economic data recovery sputters, investors finding some good shares may choose to follow the revenue or in other words it, the beloved Fender keyboards, the baubles from grandmother, the marriage band.
Income at pawn shop driver Ezcorp Inc. need hopped by a typical 46 per cent yearly for 5 age. The inventory keeps doubled from a year ago, to pertaining to $38. Additionally the wall structure road advantages whom study the business envision it’ll increase but. All seven ones were informing traders to get the Austin, Texas, organization.
Will be the economy nevertheless merely in a comfortable patch? Will the market advancement or drop? Even gurus are simply speculating. In investments, it’s often better to consider what you are able safely predict, even though that safety can be found in companies that thrive on crisis. One great choice: The jobless aren’t prone to pick efforts any time in the future. And businesses profiting using their worst bundle of money will continue to achieve this.
inventory in payday lender Advance America advance loan facilities (AEA) provides doubled from this past year, just to under $8. Opponent profit America Overseas Inc. (CSH) try up 64 percent, to $58. Such organizations typically create large interest loans due on payday to individuals whom can’t borrow from conventional lenders.
earnings at Encore investment party, a financial obligation collector that targets individuals with delinquent credit card bills alongside debts, rose nearly 50 % last year. Encore possess experienced class actions meets in many says over their range methods. Irrespective. The stock (ECPG) is actually up 59 percent from last year, to more than $30.
inventory in Rent-A-Center (RCII), which leases television sets, sofas, computers and much more, is up 57 per cent from a year ago to nearly $32. Nine of 11 experts state dealers can buy it.
The concept of purchasing enterprises providing with the hard-up may just not be palatable to some men and women. But it is successful.
Mark Montagna, a specialist at Avondale Partners in Nashville, is rolling out just what he calls a value shopping directory of 11 businesses dollars shop, off-price stores and garments and shoes organizations well-liked by buyers finding discounts. The index is up 149 per cent since February 2009, which designated the lowest month-end closure price your S&P 500 throughout economic downturn.
Desperation inventory are lifted by a drumbeat of bad news. Customer expenses, adjusted for rising prices, features fallen for 2 months consecutively initial back-to-back fall since November 2009. On Friday, the government reported the jobless rates rose to 9.2 percentage in Summer, delivering stocks in tailspin. Additionally, one out of seven Us americans today live underneath the poverty line, a 17-year higher.
It’s become a beneficial 12 months, claims John Coffey Jr., a Sterne Agee expert, talking about the companies he pursue, maybe not the economy. Coffey produced a blend later latest month when he released a written report serious hyperlink arguing part of Ezcorp (EZPW), that also renders payday advances, comprise well worth a 3rd significantly more than her rates and advised buyers to buy. The inventory increased 7 percentage.
Some experts envision these down-and-out inventory are as prone to fall now instead of surge. It isn’t which they thought the recovery will change quick and other people are certain to get tasks and store someplace else. Its that issues could easily get even worse.
Yet not to despair. Nick Mitchell, a specialist at Northcoast study, states wealthier customers, state those making $45,000, include experience so strapped that they are beginning to rent out accessories, also.


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It looks like Facebook could soon dethrone MySpace in the number of unique visitors, because according to TechCrunch, Facebook has caught up to MySpace in terms of the number of unique visitors each site receives.
Data released by comScore shows that Facebook passed MySpace by 0.023 million visitors. Facebook received 70.278 million unique visitors, and MySpace 70.255 million, even though Facebook passed MySpace on a worldwide basis last year. The chart shown below, shows the number of unique vistors for Facebook increasing, while the number of unique visitors for MySpace remaining flat or falling.
MySpace has been in trouble lately. Another TechCrunch article shows that the number of pageviews it has received has been declining. Even with a new CEO, MySpace lost about 700,000 unique visitors.
Last Saturday Facebook launched a "vanity URLs" feature, allowing the user to change their profile URL into a more user friendly one. Just 15 minutes after the launch, a half million people had signed up for this feature, and now about 6 million users have signed up for the feature.
Recently, MySpace launched a site wide IM toolbar, however, that doesn't appear to be helping them in terms of the unique visitors the site receives.
The make matters worse, MySpace will receive its last payment from Google next year. After that, they're on their own. With page views decreasing, it's possible that the site will be unprofitable a year from now considering it costs half a billion dollars a year to run.


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Ron Belanger goes to BuyDomains, which plays in direct navigation.
Carat Interactive's VP of search marketing has jumped ship to join direct navigation firm BuyDomains as VP of marketing, ClickZ has learned. A Carat spokesperson confirmed his departure, and said the agency would name a replacement in the next two weeks.
Ron Belanger has been with Carat since late 2003, prior to which he was VP of account development at Inceptor. His new employer, Boston area-based BuyDomains, is a direct navigation and domain squatting firm that lays claim to approximately 500,000 domains and 20 million unique visitors a month.
Established agencies are having increasing difficulty finding and retaining top search talent in a job market that rewards entrepreneurship over salaried employment. Many of Belanger's executive peers in search marketing have earned great dividends on their equity stakes in new ventures. Kevin Ryan, formerly of Wahlstrom Interactive and Did-It, recently sold a three-month-old start-up search business to Zunch Communications, which he joined as chief strategy officer. Late last year, iProspect founder and CEO Fredrick Marckini sold his firm to Aegis for $50 million.
Belanger's move points to another trend: The direct navigation business model, in which PPC ads are served to users who type a keyword directly into their browsers' address field, is particularly hot now. The practice has been around for years, but has gotten renewed attention this summer as acquisitions and profits increase in the space.
Critics say the prevalence of these sites, which offer nothing but ads, clutters the Internet with low value Web pages. But the domain owners argue relevance will improve with time. Marchex, which last year bought direct navigation player Name Development Ltd., this month rolled out a beta interface for 54 zip code-based URLs, which it said it would turn into mini-portals with local shopping information.
On the heels of a fantastic event in New York City, ClickZ Live is taking the fun and learning to Toronto, June 23-25. With over 15 years' experience delivering industry-leading events, ClickZ Live offers an action-packed, educationally-focused agenda covering all aspects of digital marketing. Early Bird Rates expire May 29. Register today and save!
Until March 2012, Zach Rodgers was managing editor of ClickZ's award-winning coverage of news and trends in digital marketing. He reported on the rise of web companies, data markets, ad technologies, and government Internet policy, among other subjects.
Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce
This Magic Quadrant examines leading digital commerce platforms that enable organizations to build digital commerce sites. These commerce platforms facilitate purchasing transactions over the Web, and support the creation and continuing development of an online relationship with a consumer.
Paid Search in the Mobile Era
Google reports that paid search ads are currently driving 40+ million calls per month. Cost per click is increasing, paid search budgets are growing, and mobile continues to dominate. It's time to revamp old search strategies, reimagine stale best practices, and add new layers data to your analytics.
June 10, 2015
12:00pm ET/9:00am PT


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Companies across the UK could be leaving themselves wide open to online threats.
This is the view of David Prince, delivery director of cyber security at Schillings, who told Computer Weekly that companies could be faced with considerable data recovery costs if they do not begin to take seriously the threat of unwanted access to their IT infrastructure from hacktivists and other online threats.
“We are seeing companies struggle to identify significant, credible cyber threats that relate directly to them, such as data breaches and phishing campaign,” he stated. “Consequently they are not proportioning security controls properly, spending most of their security budget on the network perimeter instead of identifying true risks.”
Mr Prince highlighted the practice of threat modelling as something many businesses have not yet fully understood, adding that companies could have the largest data security budgets in the world, but this will not effectively safeguard their data if this money is not spent in the right areas.
High-profile data breaches – such as the recent hacking of eBay’s consumer lists – and the associated costs both financially and in terms of reputation for these companies are serving to increase awareness of cyber threats, but more needs to be done to educate businesses on how best to offset these risks.
President and chief executive officer of the Financial Services Roundtable Tim Pawlenty also recently backed up this stance, when he wrote in his blog for the Wall Street Journal how continued investment in the latest technologies should be at the forefront of data security plans for firms.
Controlling access to sensitive business and consumer information is a must for all businesses and this is best achieved by implementing multi-level security protocols and systems, both for internal access to files and for those that are transferred outside a business’ secure networks.
“This will be an ongoing battle for the long term and often the system is only as good as the weakest link,” he concluded.
When looking for data recovery services, look for one with a track record of success. Ontrack Data Recovery services has 40,000 data recovery stories to tell every year.


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From the Editor's Desk Helping others is a good thing. But can it lead to professional success? The short answer is yes; because of the power of relationships, motivation and learning. Sales people who value customer success over their own sales targets tend to lose out in the short run, but win in the longer term because of deeper relationships. Clients tend to return to you when they trust your suggestions. Helping others is motivating and can in itself help you improve your productivity. Helping out when no one else was available helped Kat Cole learn new aspects of the job and move from hostess to waitress to manager, to president of Cinnabon, a company that touched $1 billion in revenues last year. So, the next time someone asks you for help at work... - Comment
India moots 6-8% 'Google Tax' on digital companies CBDT suggests "Equalisation Levy" of 6-8% on B2B deals - It would also include right to use or download online music, online movies, online games and online software applications accessed or downloaded through internet.
IEEE-SA policy not good for Indian telecom: Experts The government should refrain from adopting the IEEE-SA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association) policy as it has stopped the standard development process globally and can do the same in India, analysts have warned.
Finance ministry, banks hold meeting on loan recovery One of the known problems with the Indian economy at present is the state of the state owned banks. They simply have too much bad debt on their books: too many loans out to people who are not repaying them, have little hope of repaying them and are most unlikely [...]
Why Apple needs to gamble with a ‘budget’ smartphone? On September 10, 2013, Apple launched the iPhone 5c alongside the iPhone 5s. Over the next year, it was evident that the 5c wasn’t necessarily the direction Apple intended for the device. But soon, it was evident, users saw it as an alternative to the benchmark device by Apple.
Now hiring: New Development Bank opens vacancies for top posts The New Development Bank, the new financial institution established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa eight months ago, is now open for hiring for its top management positions — opening up career opportunities for development professionals among the five member countries.
India needs to create well paying jobs The Economic Survey 2015-2016 stresses that India being in the midway through its demographic dividend is providing an economic growth in terms of the working age share of the population. Hence to exploit this dividend and meet the growing aspiration of those entering the labor force, India’s Economy needs to create enough “good jobs”- jobs that are safe and pay well, and encourage firms and worke
Internet ad spend to overtake TV by 2017 : Report Global internet ad spends to overtake TV for first time in 2017: Agency - ZenithOptimedia expects internet advertising to grow at over three times compared to the rest of the industry in 2016, boosted by Rio Olympics, European soccer championships and the US Presidential elections.


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With its first public appearance at the British Motor Show in London, the 2009 Ford Fiesta ECOnetic fuel-sipping ultra-compact hatchback officially joins bigger Euro-spec Ford Mondeo and Focus models that wear the same ECOnetic badge.
At the end of July, Ford Europe will officially present its 2nd-gen 2009 Ford Focus RS super-hot performance hatchback. Compared to the current EU-spec 2008 Ford Focus, the upcoming sports car features a more aggressive body kit with lowered ground clearance, a triangular air-vent in the front fenders and, of course, a huge air intake in the front bumper that will allow better cooling of its powerful 2.5-liter engine equipped with a huge Borg Warner K16 turbocharger.
Set to be officially unveiled this weekend at the National Mustang Show in Dublin, OH, the new Roush RTC Mustang package will feature a special red and black two-tone paint scheme. Well, of course, the new paint job is not the only think that Roush has in store for the new Mustang: there are more enhancements to the new version of the iconic car that not only enhances its appearance, but also improves handling of the beast.
The new breed of electric vehicles is on offensive. As Ford UK tries to sell some more commercial vans by offering them in sporty colors, the Rochester-based company Amp Electric Vehicles offers a Smith Ampere EV conversion program that turns a normal oil-burner into a futuristic, zero emission electric vehicle.
The 2007 Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet was presented at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show. The new transformer is a production version of the highly acclaimed Vignale Concept that was first introduced two years ago at the international motor show in Paris.


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Intel Corporation (INTC) will increase its quarterly dividend by 15 percent, the company’s board of directors announced Friday.
Shares of Intel traded up 1.77% to $21.58 at the opening bell.
The chipmaker said it is upping its dividend as it is “on track” to have its “best year ever” and “continues to generate strong cash flow.”
“Our ongoing operational performance and confidence in our business going forward provide the ability to return more cash to shareholders,” Chief Executive Paul Otellini said in a statement released by the company.
Intel said the increase pushes its quarterly cash dividend up to 18 cents per share from 15.75 share, or 72 cents per share on an annual basis.
The company has been paying a cash dividend since 1992, and said it has already doled out $2.6 billion in dividends in the first three quarters of fiscal 2010.
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!


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What are some of the key challenges marketers face in Australia? What can we do to ensure a campaign is successful across channels? We provide a breakdown of the 2014 Australian Digital Insights Report.
As October rolls to an end, we take a look back at the month that’s been. From Twitter announcing its plans to go public to Google’s super simple explanation of How Search Works, we’ve brought you the best of a big month!
It’s been a big month for online marketing! Gmail’s gone tabbed, Google Maps had a facelift, and Facebook’s news feed is as stable as a baby giraffe on rollerskates. We’ve gathered the best links you may have missed on new Google developments, content marketing & social media.
These days, it doesn't take long for a successful tech company to get acquired by a bigger player. We take a look at a few cool takeovers from this year where each acquirer (Pac-Man) paid (ate a power pellet) to acquire the target (Om Nom Nom Nom the ghost).


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Publicis Media has won the digital merchandising business account for Microsoft.
Focusing on ecommerce and digital content delivery, Publicis Media’s commerce division will handle the work in seven Asia-Pacific markets Singapore, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
The agency will provide its services across several Microsoft product lines, including Windows, Office, Xbox and Surface.
“We are thrilled to have Microsoft come on board. Publicis Media is the...
- Campaign Asia-Pacific online premium content* including in-depth monthly focus on key trends and industry issues
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- Regular value-added supplements including brand health checks, sector studies, ad critiques and research charts
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The retailer's stock falls 2% on the Q4 earnings report, indicating investors are skeptical about its turnaround strategy.
“These are important actions we are taking to continue our evolution and deliver on the Way Forward commitments we made in June," CFO Jane Nielsen…
The retailer warns its history of losses indicates "substantial doubt exists related to the company's ability to continue as a going concern.”
The electronics retailer blamed its filing on the "surprisingly poor performance of mobility sales" despite its co-branded stores with Sprint.
The retailer's shift to a new business model "will present headwinds to our sales and profit performance in the short term."
The outlook for sales growth, however, remains weak, with comp sales expected to decline between 2.0% and 3.0% this year.
The charge to cover possible future claims was larger than analysts expected and led to a net loss of $3.04 billion in the fourth quarter.
The retailer "still has a long runway ahead of it before it will realize the benefits" of its turnaround strategy, analysts say.
“While Sears was once a titan of U.S. retail, it now looks set to sink,” one analyst predicts.
The sale to Hilco Capital is part of Staples' strategy of focusing on North American operations amid dwindling demand for traditional office products.


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A few days ago, Persona Q: Shadow of Labyrinth was announced for Nintendo 3DS and released a trailer for it.
Now Atlus has released a bunch of new 3DS screenshots as well as character artwork for Persona Q: Shadow of Labyrinth.
You can view the new screenshots below:
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth will be making its way to the Nintendo 3DS on June 5th, 2014. So far it has only been confirmed for a Japan release.
Would you like to see this game headed West?


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Search engines are becoming more and more important for online retailers, with the percentage of traffic from shopper’s search queries rising in 2007, with more finding a site via Google or Yahoo than going direct to an e-commerce site.
According to stats from web measurement firm Hitwise, the top 500 retailers received more traffic from search than in the previous year. 72% of firms received more search traffic in 2007 when compared with 2006.
Also, 13% of Internet Retailer’s top 500 list received half or more of their total traffic from search engines, compared with 10% in 2006.
Heather Dougherty of Hitwise says the figures show the value of search engine marketing:
“Search engine-oriented traffic is becoming increasingly more important for retailers as consumer use of search engines continues to rise. Some retailers may be missing out on potential sales and valuable information about consumer intent if they are ignoring this marketing channel.”
Overall in 2007, search engines were responsible for 25% of traffic to websites in Hitwise’s shopping and classifieds category, the same percentage as in the previous year.
Other stats from the report:
- Online-only retailers receive most traffic from search – 37% in 2007, up 6% on 2006.
- Catalogue sites come second in terms of search traffic on 32%, compared with 30% in 2006.
- Traffic from search engines to consumer brands rose by 15% to 31% in 2007.
- Retail chains received 28% of their traffic from search in 2006, this rose to 30% last year.


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MUMBAI: Star has appointed Yeshpal Sharma as its vice president of distribution and advertising sales for the UK and continental Europe.
Sharma will oversee Star’s operations across the territory, working to expand advertising sales and distribution of Star’s Indian and Chinese language television services.
Sharma, who joins Star from Eurosport, will report to Star senior vice president Distribution and Sales and head of Star’s North American and European offices David Wisnia.
"With the continued expansion of Asian communities across the U.K. and Europe, we have a real opportunity to further increase our presence. Yeshpal, along with the talented team we have in place, will be counted on to grow our revenue base in line with the excitement that the Star brand is generating among our growing number of viewers here," said Wisnia.