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In the middle of last December, Myth of Empires studio Angela Game fired off a lawsuit against Snail Games and Studio Wildcard, demanding that the claim of copyright infringement that removed the game from Steam be heard in a jury trial. Thanks to reporting from MMO Fallout, we now know the latest step in the legal scuffle, and that step is Snail Games firing off countersuits of its own.
The primary countersuit from Snail Games does more than claim that Angela Game “scrambled to cover its theft” by revising or changing the game’s code; it also goes after Imperium Interactive Entertainment Ltd., the company that made the distribution agreement between Angela and Valve to put Myth of Empires on Steam, accusing Imperium of making the deal despite being aware of the stolen code. Snail Games has also put forth an additional lawsuit against Tencent, accusing the publisher of ignoring a DMCA takedown of Myth’s servers because Tencent allegedly “directly or indirectly owns a substantial interest in Angela,” which according to the filing could make Tencent liable for contributory copyright infringement.
Snail Games is seeking all the damages, including disgorgement of profits from Tencent and the game’s sales; statutory damages; a permanent injunction on Angela, Imperium, and Tencent on future infringement; and legal and attorney fees, among other restitution demands.
Angela Game had filed an injunction against the DMCA takedown in order to get the game back on to Steam, but the court denied the move, citing “a plethora of circumstantial evidence” from Snail Games that supports the copyright infringement claim.


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What do Pope Benedict, Rob Ford and the Ikea Monkey have in common? They all boost tourism
Just so you know, this is not an attempt to lure readers simply by mentioning the lead characters in three of the most-read news stories of the past 12 months. (But it worked, right?)
Last week, I received an email from Hotels.com spokeswoman Lauren Wasley, who informed me that following the Pope’s resignation on Feb. 11, the accommodations-booking website found that searches by Canadians looking to stay in Rome increased 87 per cent when compared with Feb. 11, 2012.
"Makes sense," I thought. "After all, millions of his followers may want to:
a) Personally bid farewell to Benedict XVI (pictured above) before he enters his retirement years, which will probably differ somewhat from those of Gregory XII, the last pope to retire, in that there was a lot less shuffleboard being played in 1415, and Tim Hortons wasn't yet open for business.
b) Steal Raphael's The Transfiguration once that pesky Benedict is out of the way.
c) Visit Rome because...er...it's in the news."
In short, it seemed odd that the historic papal announcement would generate such travel interest. (Hotels.com wouldn't disclose sales figures, but it stands to reason that a big bump in searches should yield at least a small bump in bookings.)
It made me wonder if the setting of any big news story would boost searches for hotels in that place, even if the story isn't related to vacations, or even travel, in any way.
Turns out I was onto something.
Take the Ikea Monkey: When asked, Wasley revealed that among Canadians, Hotels.com searches for Toronto were up 61.5 per cent, year-over-year, on Dec. 9, the day the story of the little shearling coat-clad simian (pictured at left; you can't look away) started going viral. This begs the question: Why would a rhesus macaque's misadventures in a Scandinavian furniture store make anyone want to travel to Toronto?
It's not like you can personally visit with Darwin on a trip to Hogtown, or even get a first hand glimpse of the little guy, or even touch his adorable outfit -- although any of those things would be pretty cool tourism draws. I suppose you could visit the North York Ikea where he was found, stock up on gronkullas, and stand in the exact spot just inside the parking garage's automatic doors where Darwin gazed forlornly at a world that would soon embrace him to the tune of 100-million-plus page views.
(A customer service attendant at the store told me she had "never" heard of anyone doing this. Too early for a T-shirt stand, then?)
There's more: There are those among us who feel Toronto's (insert adjective here) mayor, Rob Ford, isn't boosting the city's profile in any way, shape or form. But on Nov. 26, the day Ford was (temporarily) turfed from office, Canadian searches for Toronto lodgings on Hotels.com jumped by 93 per cent year-over-year.
The papal explanations all apply here -- cheer or jeer as Ford leaves office, make off with the Stanley Cup -- but again, how could Ford's legal setbacks possibly prompt anyone to visit Toronto?
Sometimes these surging hotel searches do make sense. Prince Harry's Las Vegas
shenanigans last August apparently fuelled a 118-per-cent increase in Sin City hotel searches. In January of 2012, the London Summer Olympics caused Canadians to search for accommodations in the British capital 91 per cent more often than they did in January of 2011. (The first month of an Olympic year, I'm told, is the most popular time for planning travel to the Games.)
In the end, these stats tweak an old maxim: When it comes to travel, there's no such thing as irrelevant publicity.
Or at the very least, that many of us have a hankering to play strip billiards in Vegas...
-- Adam Bisby
Read all of Adam’s Tripified posts here.

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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Federated Department Stores, after announcing that they were going to kill the venerated Marshall Fields name, is apparently having second thoughts, and they are considering ways to keep the name alive -- perhaps leaving it on the State Street store (which does $250 million a year in sales, and thus is large enough to be its own operation).
Most of what is mentioned in the article (e.g., having a Fields boutique within the store) would, I think, be meaningless tokenism that would do little to mollify Chicagoans. I don't think Federated's management has figured out yet how much they've alienated a major market.
The biggest effects have resulted from the huge dislocation of population, which has obvious effects on media consumption. Orleans Parish is down from 460,000 to 100,000, and St. Bernard is down almost 90%, from 67,000 to 7,000. The overall TV market has dropped from 1.6 million to a million. Because of the disruption, and because they've lost track of so many of their diary-keepers, Nielsen has suspended audience measurements until fall.
On the positive side, the influx of money for reconstruction is having its effect on advertising sales.
Radio advertising in particular has enjoyed increased demand for ad sales in the New Orleans region, according to Zehnder's report, which cites more commuters driving into the city from temporary residences outside, as well as increased congestion and longer drive times caused by infrastructure damage and repairs.And New Orleans' losses, in population, have been Baton Rouge;s gains. That city is up about 50,000, and circulation of the local paper grew from 91,000 to 106,000.
I wonder about those stats. Who said that 75% of emotions are "influenced by what we smell", and how did they determine it?
The recently established sensory communications group Brand Sense Agency said it was "extraordinary" that 83% of all commercial communication was visual because 75% of our emotions were influenced by what we smell, while there was a 65% chance our mood would change when we hear a new sound.
The agency said branding and marketing were overly reliant on our sense of sight.
I'm more interested in the part where it says that Kellogg's copyrighted the sound of their cornflakes' crunch. Is that for real?
“Some kind of combination is inevitable,” said Hal Vogel, principal of Vogel Capital Management. “The cost of having far-flung bureaus is way too high for any one organization to take on alone.”
The decline of the news power of the broadcast networks, which was once the big money-maker, will play a role.
The decline of the news power of the broadcast networks, which was once the big money-maker, will play a role.
Monday, January 30, 2006
The deals, offered by News Corp.'s News
unit, run as high as eight figures and have been bought by top package-goods marketers, including Procter & Gamble Co., Kimberly-Clark Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Unilever and General Mills. Some of the so-called category buyouts can effectively lock out competitors from in-store advertising for their duration -- even if the marketer is not advertising at that time -- and confer an edge in crucial retail territory described by marketers as the 'moment of truth.' America
Under the terms of the deals it has been selling, marketers pay News
for media and a minimum production expense for in-store ads across multiple four-week cycles whether or not they use the space or services, according to the documents. In weeks they choose not to use the space, competitors can be blocked from using it. America
And people are being shut out:
One package-goods marketer competing with Unilever said he was told when he inquired about buying a shelf-sample dispenser program that the category had been sold out to his rival for a year for $1.8 million. But the marketer said he hadn't been asked to bid on the category-exclusive deal beforehand and wasn't informed of the full scope of Unilever's buyouts across multiple categories.
According to the employee newsletters from News
for November and December, category-exclusive deals with Unilever covering all or most weeks of 2006 in hair care, deodorant and hand-and-body lotion total $14.6 million as part of an overall in-store relationship of $19 million for the year. The hand-and-body deal alone was worth $9 million, according to the documents. America
So is it legal?
It's an interesting case. You could argue that this is just an exclusive advertising arrangement, no different from Coke, for example, buying exclusive rights to an event like the Super Bowl and preventing Pepsi from buying time on the game.
But given that this is in-store, you could also make the case that such arrangements prevent competitors (generally the smaller ones) from promoting their products at the point of sale, which would mean that they could be seen as restraint of trade.
However, that’s my decidedly inexpert opinion. I passed the question by Veronica Kayne, former Assistant Director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission and now an antitrust partner at Haynes and Boone LLP in
I would phrase the antitrust market definition question as follows: If one manufacturer controlled all the advertising and promotion in all the locations at which its products were sold, would it be able to raise the price of those products or eliminate competitors?
If the answer is "no," then in-store advertising would not be considered a separate antitrust market; it would be part of a much larger market for advertising (direct mail, newspaper, TV, radio, Internet). Once it is part of that big a market, it's hard to see how exclusives in a small segment of that market could hurt competition in the overall market.
My guess is the answer is "no." Manufacturers denied access to the retailers would be likely to increase their advertising and promotion through other channels, proving they are substitutes for in-store activities. Enough people would see advertising on TV or in newspapers that if they went to a store and saw high prices or an absence of products they wanted, they would shop elsewhere. Or the retailer would be forced to drop prices or carry new products. But of course, if I'm wrong about the facts, or if the facts change, then the market definition can change too.
For products to be alternatives, or "substitutes" in an antitrust sense, and thus in the same "market," they don't have to be perfect substitutes. They just have to be substitutes. You'd rather have whole cashews, but if the price goes up enough, you switch to cashew halves, or if the price keeps going up, cashew pieces or even peanuts.
So, pushing the point, I asked how bad a substitute has to be before it makes a difference.
In the world of trade promotion marketing, we are getting to the point where we can assign values to different sorts of promotion, in terms of their relative costs and effectiveness in moving product. Let's say it can be proven that, for grocery products, coupon dispensers in supermarkets are 50% more effective than newspaper/radio/TV ads in ROI terms. The argument is that if Bob's Canned Vegetable Company is prevented from using couponing, I can use the newspaper instead. In the marketplace as economists envision it, newspaper advertising, being less effective, should reduce in price to a point where it's in rough parity with coupon dispensers in value terms.
However, that might not happen in this instance, because newspapers are not selling only to grocery marketers, but to a variety of other products and services, for many of whom it is an excellent medium. Therefore, newspaper advertising rates will probably remain fairly constant in terms of the overall media marketplace, and thus will always remain less cost-effective to BCVC. If Del Monte buys up all the coupon dispensers in the country, we cannot effectively compete because our advertising/promotion costs will go through the roof (if Del Monte's trade promotion costs are 20% of sales, BCVC would be forced to spend 30% in order to achieve parity -- which might be a financial impossibility).
Veronica was unimpressed with that argument as well:
How big does the difference have to be before it's meaningful? I'm going to take refuge and be legalistic: determining the relevant market is a question of fact for the jury, so the standard is could a reasonable jury come to whatever conclusion this jury came to?
Antitrust doesn't guarantee you the best distributors or advertising channels. It just, on a good day, guarantees that no one will pre-empt so much that you can't get to minimum efficient scale. Think about setting up a network of pharmacies to offer an insurance company. The first guy gets the best pharmacies. The second guy to set up a network may have to reach deeper into the array and have more pharmacies to get the same sort of coverage because these don't have quite the right geographic dispersion or the right hours or don't have enough delivery. But you can still set up the network. Only if the first guy has gotten exclusive contracts with so many pharmacies that the second guy can't build a competitive network is there an antitrust problem, under current antitrust jurisprudence.
So it sounds like, if the FTC and the Justice Department are thinking along the same lines as Veronica, which is probably fairly likely, they might look into this question without taking action. So how about an ambitious state Attorney General? Eliot Spitzer made his name in
So the only likelihood for legal action on this issue is private litigation. Conwood showed that this can be a very big deal, collecting a billion from U.S. Tobacco for antitrust violations – but it’s an expensive path to take, and it’s questionable if this issue could engender damage settlements big enough to make it worthwhile.
Veronica Kayne can be reached at Veronica.Kayne@haynesboone.com.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
The article says that the new system is intended, among other things, to overcome objections to in-store systems that run constantly. But most stores that I'm in have multiple customers in every aisle at least in bust time periods -- so won't it be running almost constantly? I also wonder about the sound bleeding over from one device to the next, assuming that stores will have several of these devices.
But I guess that's the sort of thing that gets ironed out in the test. The big question will be competition from the stores' own in-store networks.
- The National System, Inc., was bought by Frontenac, a private equity firm from Chicago. The deal was estimated at about thirty-five to forty million. If the numbers in the article are right, NSI has quadrupled in sales in the last five years. Pretty impressive.
- TradeOne promoted CTO Dan Hickox to President. They also said that they will be doubling the size of their tech staff and increasing their Web offerings.
- CoAMS named a new CEO, Hank Riner. Sorry, I don't have a link. They also announced that they had received SAS 70 approval from their independent auditors.
- MEI made several appointments: Fred Schroeder as Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Thibault as Chief Financial Officer, and Keith Peers as Vice President of Services and VeriSync Operations.
Reebok said Wednesday the companies now expect to close the deal by Jan. 31, a quick conclusion they hope will end the uncertainty that had hurt sales and orders to retailers. Reebok acknowledged three months ago that uncertainty about integration plans had hurt sales, which declined to $912 million in the third quarter of 2005, from $1 billion in the previous year's quarter.The new company will be pretty close to Nike on a worldwide basis (about 31% to 28%), but Nike's lead is much bigger in the US. Adidas leads Nike in Europe and Japan.
Here's one marketing professor's view of how they could use the two brands:
The acquisition of Reebok could allow Adidas to divide and conquer the two major market segments for athletic shoes and clothing — style and performance, Dhar said.
Reebok could focus on the style segment while Adidas could focus more on performance shoes and equipment to expand its market share with a broader offering of products, he said.
Friday, January 27, 2006
It is becoming an increasing issue for manufacturers who need to decide whether to produce private label (as many have always done -- in Europe and the US) or if that will cannabalize their own sales. Another issue is major retailers taking over manufacturing themselves:
“Certainly if retailers can get facilities for knockdown prices from an old famous brand that has collapsed, this might tempt them. In the US it is something that's being mooted at the moment.”One alternative that is offered is to create your own down-market brand to battle or pre-empt private label penetration of your category:
But some manufacturers seem to be shifting direction. American-owned Budweiser has expanded its range to add premium and cut-price alternatives to its famous number-one brand, rather than produce private labels.
“They have taken a leaf out of the private label book by offering a value product too, called Busch beer. It's cheaper, with less packaging but still benefits from the ‘halo effect' of the wider Bud name.”
- There are too many stores -- 19.5 square feet of retail per capita
- Online is cutting into sales -- up 22% in 2005 to $143b (although it is also pointed out that that is still only about 2% of total retail)
CVS has built itself primarily by acquisition:
Major deals have included a 1997 merger with Revco DS that added about 2,500 stores in the Midwest and Southeast, and a 2004 purchase of 1,200 stores from Eckerd Corp. that broadened CVS's reach into Florida and Texas, which are filled with elderly consumers in need of medicines.Last year, according to analysts, CVS trailed Walgreen's $42b to $37b (although they already led in number of stores). This acquisition may be enough to close the gap, since the 700 stores they acquired are estimated to do about $5.5b.
In most other retail categories, there is a leader with a decided edge on #2 (e.g., Best Buy/Circuit City, Home Depot/Lowes, Wal-Mart/Target). It will be fun to watch a battle between equals.
One area of disagreement was Mr. Perez's effort to strengthen ties with Nike's biggest retail clients. Mr. Knight rarely spoke with executives at national chains such as Finish Line. In one of his first gestures as chief executive, Mr. Perez visited the headquarters of several chains, charming the stores but upsetting Nike's sales staff.It also seems that some of Perez's efforts in regard to the channel may have been seen as counter to the Nike brand strategy -- a trade-off that will resonate with many marketers in many companies:
Mr. Perez, for example, believed that the Nike brand had largely saturated the high-end market - Nike controls 90 percent of the market for sneakers priced over $100 - and should grow by introducing more exclusive lines to lower-end retailers.
So he lowered the minimum purchase requirement for chains like Famous Footwear ans Shoe Carnival to 10,000 from 25,000. But some Nike executives believed the move "cheapened the brand," said John Shanley, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group who tracks the company closely.
Here's another, earlier report on some competing offers.
Today is Mozart's 250th birthday, and I just want to offer him my sincere thanks.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
"The middleman's cost that was eliminated was also eliminated for the people," Brooks said. "To get a box out like that for $25 just shows me that these guys are not just eliminating the middleman and keeping the middleman's money — that makes me feel very good."Brooks may feel good about it, but I doubt that feeling is shared by the record labels (aka, "the middlemen"). And its a feeling that is familiar to many in other product categories.
"It's analogous to the way they want to deal with their vendors — they want to deal directly and cut out the middleman, whether it's widgets or Rubbermaid, and now they're doing it with stars," said Nelson Lichtenstein, a professor of history at UC Santa Barbara and editor of "Wal-Mart: The Face of 21st Century Capitalism." "Whatever they touch they transform, because they're so big and they have such tremendous market clout and power."The question is, could Wal-Mart apply the concept of private label to music -- could they, in short, become a label themselves? And the answer is -- you bet they could! In fact, some estimates are that, in country music at least, Wal-Mart accounts for 50% of sales.
The scariest thing for the labels is that Brooks, who is no longer a real hot name in the music biz, sold this Christmas like the biggest star around -- the boxed set sold a million copies in fifteen days.
The initial sales — near-record numbers for a multi-disc set — concern some music industry executives, many of whom would not speak on the record for fear of alienating Wal-Mart, their biggest customer.Of course, if you're your own label, that means you do your own promotion:
"If a retailer is going to spend $10 million on an effective ad campaign, there's a huge upside for the artist," said Gary Borman, who manages [Faith] Hill and other artists.As if news hasn't been bad enough for the labels and distributors.
The problem for traditional radio is that these are not only significant numbers of listeners who are deserting their stations, but they are (presumably) among the heaviest listeners. To have lost almost ten million of them already hurts, and another twenty million in the next four years will devastate many stations and chains.
It will also be really tough on marketers, who are losing (again) an effective medium.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
"Best Buy is taking a leadership position within the retail industry with our plans to eliminate mail-in rebates," said Ron Boire, executive vice president and global merchandise manager, Best Buy. "Our customers told us they hate mail-in rebate programs. As a result, we're working as a company and partnering with our vendors to find new solutions to give our customers a better shopping experience, while remaining competitive on pricing."
Best Buy saw the light on rebates right after the FTC nailed CompUSA.
PC makers' message is simple. Their devices, with built-in Web connections, powerful computing capabilities, and software that discourages illegal copying, are better suited than traditional consumer-electronics gear from the likes of Sony, Samsung, Sharp, and Matsushita's Panasonic. It's computers, not TVs, that will best serve consumers' growing digital desires, delivering everything from music to first-run movies, and shuffling that content to any corner of the home, they maintain.But the CE companies say they have the edge:
It's really the PC-industry stalwarts who should be worried, argues Atsutoshi Nishida, CEO of Toshiba. In his view, PC giants, excluding Apple and Toshiba, have focused on the commoditization of technology, not on adding new innovations that let companies turn a profit.The battle will be worth it: "
"Commodity markets grow for a few years, but then they stall," Nishida says. "To make a market healthy, you need some percentage of new, uncommoditized technologies. Otherwise, the market becomes like a bloody red ocean."
"Cisco is pretty ambitious. They are established in the business marketing, but not in the home," said Marty Brandt, partner at San Francisco-based consultancy TrueBrand. "They want to extend out of B2B. It'll be interesting to see how they take home electronics to the marketplace."Cisco is said to be planning new home entertainment products, coming out of the Linksys division, which markets home networking products.
Last year, Cisco made numerous acquisitions to help it make a splash in the CE field. In November, it spent $6.9 billion to acquire Scientific Atlanta, which makes set-top cable boxes. Last summer, it spent $61 million to buy Kiss Technologies, maker of DVD players.
Politics makes strange bedfellows, as the saying goes, but so does business, and when politics and business converge, it can get very strange. Opposition to the new rule was spearheaded by the Communists ( "We have been opposing it. I don't know why the government has to take such a decision,'' said D. Raja, secretary of the Communist Party of India) and business -- the Communists because they're opposed to business in general, and business interests because they don't want competition.
Still, it is a step forward, and may signal more openings to come.
Analysts said the Cabinet decision was typical of the style successive governments in India have adopted in opening any sector to foreign competition.
"India's economic reforms remain a story of incremental changes at a glacial pace,'' said Rajeev Malik, a Sinagapore-based economist with JP Morgan & Co.
The 26-page suit claims News America has threatened grocery store chains with sharply higher prices on in-store coupons if it didn't agree to distribute newspaper coupons. The suit says threatened penalties have routinely exceeded $1 million.News America holds pretty much a monopoly on in-store couponing, and Valassis says they are using that power illegally.
"News is presently using its market power in the in-store advertising and promotions market to solidify and expand its position in the FSI market," the suit said. Valassis claims News is threatening to raise prices charged grocery chains if they don't "sign long-term exclusive contracts" for newspaper insert service. "Ultimately, News will possess the unfettered monopoly power to raise prices and lower output in the FSI market beyond competitive levels."
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Monday, January 23, 2006
- Require any item (e.g., product, drivers license) containing an RFID chip to carry notification
- Prohibit use of the devices to track individuals (with some exceptions)
- Prohibit devices from transmitting personal information
- And of course (this is government, after all) create a commission to study RFID
The purchase will triple Super Valu's size and vault it to the #2 spot in supermarkets. The problem for them will be absorbing so much so quickly, and fixing a very broken company -- Albertson's same-store sales have been down eight of the last fourteen quarters.
CVS should close a lot of the lead Walgreens has on them, and this gives them a big piece of the California market, where they've had little penetration. I've heard that they did well with the Eckerd takeover, so perhaps they know how to do this M&A stuff.
Investors and analysts have shown concern over increased competition to Nike from the pending merger between Adidas-Salomon and Reebok International Ltd and over tough market conditions in Europe and Japan.The part that struck me is that they're paying him two years' salary. Work one year, get paid for three -- where do I find a gig like that?
Sunday, January 22, 2006
I don't think I understand this one.
Analyst Bill Sims with Smith Barney said some retailers use gasoline as a loss leader and a way to drive traffic into their stores.
"If Costco's doing it, and Wal-Mart's doing it, why not Home Depot?" Sims said. "I would think it would be a great traffic driver and more of a one-stop-shop."
Excuse me if "Costco's doing it, and Wal-Mart's doing it" doesn't strike me as great logic. Remember your mom saying, "If Billy jumped off a cliff, would you do it?"
Okay – it’s not that bad, but it still sounds strange to me.
I see c-stores as being a great place to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk, not a loaf of bread and a gallon of paint, which is what the “one-stop shop” part of the argument seems to envision.
Still, in one limited aspect I can see the logic, and that is as a tie-in with their foray into the professional market. I guess I can see builders drinking coffee and buying donuts in the morning as they wait for their orders to be loaded. Still, that seems a weak foundation on which to build a c-store business.
But I could be wrong.
Friday, January 20, 2006
I won't detail the long post -- read it for yourself -- but the basic point is that newspapers need to abandon the expense of reporting all those things that people can get more easily and on time from other sources ("What is the real cost of maintaining stock tables for the few readers who still use them in print?").
He also argues that papers need to push their readers to their on-line sites, even to the point of selling print ads as add-ons to online, rather than vice-versa.
He details a long list of things that are worthless -- TV listings, advice columns, movie critics, national sports coverage -- and suggests that the expense and space devoted to those things be dedicated instead to the one thing the papers can do better than anyone else -- local news.
If, instead, you took those resources to get rid of a crooked mayor or reform property taxes, you’d be performing a far greater journalistic service. It may not get you awards, but it will get you readers.Sounds sensible to me, but what do I know? Well, I know they've got serious problems -- but whether this is the fix or not is another issue.
- Newspapers down 4.2%
- Newspaper ad revenue down 4.5%
- Retail ad revenue down 5.2%
- National ad revenue down 9.6%
- Classified ad revenue up 2.5%
- Circulation revenue down 3.5%
- Broadcasting and entertainment group down 11.9%
- Television ad revenue down 10.1%
I liked this line from the E&P write-up: "The company said [much of the] drop was due to the timing of Christmas on Sunday and the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma in Florida."
Uh-huh. All through 2005, ad revenue drops were, very legitimately, being blamed on the fact that 2004 was both a presidential election year and an Olympic year. Neither of those factors applied to December, however, so they had to go digging for something else.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
With "Amazon Fishbowl With Bill Maher," Amazon.com Inc. is trying to blend commerce with entertainment, much as Starbucks Corp. sells CDs and DVDs alongside coffee to position its brand as a lifestyle. In an e-commerce twist on movie and TV product placement, Amazon will place links to buy the works discussed during the show beside the program's display window.The first show will feature Stephen King flogging his latest book. King "plans to make Amazon his only broadcast appearance."
The company is betting that some of the nearly 50 million people who visit it each month to shop will take a few minutes to watch the show. Amazon was the seventh-most visited website in the United States in December, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.It's an interesting concept, and if it works, you can bet other retailers (both cyber and bricks & mortar) will follow. In any case, it's more media fragmentation.
"Amazon gets a lot of traffic, and if they put it on their front page people will click on it," Card said. "The big question is whether they convert to actually buying the books and songs and movies they're promoting."
By the way, how much do you think publishers will be charged to get their authors on the show?
Coles Myer (Coles supermarkets, Myers department stores, Kmart, Target, and other brands) has been turning in poor performance in recent years. Twice they've brought in top American retail execs to fix things and twice they've failed.
Now, in a scenario that will be familiar to Americans, they are giving up on the department store business and putting the 61-store Myer chain up for sale.
I know the camera and film business has been weak ("has been weak" = euphemism for "sucks"), but Konica and Minolta are huge brand names (I was unaware that they had merged a couple years ago).
They are selling a portion of the camera business to Sony, dumping the rest of it immediately, and getting out of the film business (they're #3 worldwide) by early next year.
By ditching the unprofitable operations, Iwai said the company could focus resources on more promising areas such as color office copiers and liquid crystal display materials, medical equipment and optical devices.They lost over $400mil last year.
The notice asks for $25 each time a Massachusetts child under 8 saw a Kellogg's ad for "nutritionally poor" products; an ad on Nickelodeon for any company's nutritionally poor products; or Nickelodeon characters like SpongeBob SquarePants promoting nutritionally poor food over the past four years....The two viewpoints, as summarized by Ad Age:
Food and marketing groups have maintained any food eaten in appropriate quantities can be part of a healthy diet and note a lack of official definition of "junk food." They also contend breakfast cereal can be more healthy than some other breakfast alternatives, and that parents, not children, buy the products and have ultimate control.
The consumer groups argue that advertising makes parents' job of restraining their children's choices nearly impossible and that advertising, especially to younger children, by its nature is unfair.
"Studies show that children under 8 do not understand the persuasive intent of commercials and are particularly vulnerable to messages," the 30-day notice says.
Though Home Depot said it would slow new-store growth to 400 to 500 through 2010, roughly half the number opened in the previous five years, its plan to derive more sales from professional contractors was seen favorably by analysts....Although sales to contractors is only 4% of HD's business today, it is projected to reach 18% in 2010. They are also pushing for growth in services/installation, and international expansion.
Lowes, by contrast, will be opening 150-160 stores per year on 2006-07. If that keeps up (a big "if"), Lowes will be closing in on HD in store count by 2010.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Or maybe I just don't understand it.
- Ashley Furniture Industries -- A Wisconsin combo manufacturer/retailer with 100 stores, growing at 40% a year.
- The Fresh Market -- A Whole Foods wannabee from North Carolina with about 50 stores.
- Steve & Barry's -- Marketers of low-price merchandise labeled with university names, they doubled in size in both 2003 and 2004. Started with near-campus shops, but now expanding into malls with big stores that take over those empty department stores.
- Metropark -- They didn't describe this one much, other than that it appeals to young adults, and it's by the people who created Hot Topic.
- Culvers -- Not a retailer in the sense that we discuss them here, this is a midwestern fast-food chain that is rapidly expanding -- now about 300 locations. I love their Butter Burgers.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
The moves were outlined in a letter Sears President and CEO Aylwin Lewis wrote to employees last week. The missive, posted on employee online message boards, came after Kmart consultants visited 70 stores over the holiday shopping season and found 65 percent of their experiences as "below expectations."Depends on what your expectations are, right?
Okay, I'll stop being nasty. The good news, such as it is, is that maybe Kmart really intends to do something about their problems. Maybe -- if it's not already too late.
This is in addition to the 62 closures they announced in September.
Monday, January 16, 2006
The reasons given are continued high energy prices and a slowdown in the housing market, which will cut back on spending by those who have been cashing in on their home equity.
This is in line with most of the economic projections I've seen. The consensus seems to be that overall economic growth will be strong in 2006, but it will be business spending that drives it more than consumers. If you're in a B2B channel, this is good news.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Satellite services, they tell us, more than doubled their subscriptions in 2005 (from 4.5mil to 9.3mil), and Jupiter Research says they'll hit 55mil by 2010. But that's not the end of it -- BW says that Motorola is preparing to introduce a service as are several cell service providers, and maybe Apple.
The response of the radio industry is to put on a big push for high-definition radio, on the grounds that listeners are upset over sound quality (supposedly HD FM sounds as good as a CD). I think they're delusional. My own feeling (supported by the comments to the BW article) is that radio's problem is content (or lack of it), not sound quality. From my days as a commuter, I recall the endless yammering of the "morning crew" that every station feels they need, at whom I used to often scream, "Shut up and play the #$@% music!" (I very much recommend screaming at the radio -- it's a great release for commuting stress). Putting these stations on an HD signal just means being able to hear their drivel better.
Enough of my anti-morning crew prejudices, however. The point for trade promo people is that it will be even tougher in the future to reach your local audiences.
The cards accounted for 15 percent to 18 percent of consumer spending this holiday season, more than expected, and more than the 14.5 percent, or $30 billion, spent a year earlier, according to Michael Niemira, chief economist of the International Council of Shopping Centers.
The fascinating thing is the size of the Times' drop -- down from 320k to 260k between 2001 and 2004, a 19% decline.
This of course is city circulation, and the Times has been following a strategy of turning itself into a national publication. Nonetheless, a big part of their advertising is from local retailers, and the numbers have to be a shocker to them (the Times stopped breaking out local circ figures several years ago -- now we know why).
"The local retail advertiser will care because they've been paying advertising increases of 6 to 9 percent a year every year since 2000," said Shelly Kravitz, president of Plus Media Buying Services in New York.
That means local advertisers are paying 30 percent more to reach a New York audience that has shrunk by almost one-fifth, Kravitz said.
"I'm just amazed at that," he added.
In the complaint against Home Depot, ex-employee Michael Davis alleges the Atlanta-based chain processed false claims and reported fake quantities of defective or damaged items to vendors to collect added revenue that could reach $40,000 to $50,000 a week at a store.That sounds wildly exaggerated to me. $40k/week = $2mil/year x 2000 stores = $4bil/year. Sorry, but I'm not buying it.
Friday, January 13, 2006
"After a thorough review, we have concluded that Lord & Taylor does not fit with our strategic focus for building the Macy's and Bloomingdale's national brands," said Terry J. Lundgren, Federated's chairman, president and CEO, in a statement. "However, Lord & Taylor is a niche specialty retailer with a great name, many outstanding locations, an experienced management team and a strong customer following that makes it a desirable business."Right -- it's such a great business you're trying to get rid of it.
Meanwhile Saks has put their Parisian chain up for sale.
The question is: How many departments stores can be up for sale at any one time? There's a supply/demand issue here. Saks is putting Parisian up for sale right after selling their northern stores to Bon Ton and their other southern stores to Belks. Presumably Saks Fifth Avenue itself will go on the block soon after.
Are there that many buyers out there?
Second issue: How many upscale department stores can the market sustain? At present there are five chains -- Nordstrom, Neiman-Marcus, Bloomingdales, L&T, and SFA. All other retail categories are winnowing down to two:
- Home Depot/Lowes
- Best Buy/Circuit City
- Staples/Office Depot
Why should an investor be interested in buying Lord & Taylor or Saks Fifth Avenue, which are fourth and fifth in their category?
Just last month, Musicland said it would close its 61-store Media Play chain; this month it is shuttering 59 Sam Goody and Suncoast stores, leaving it with about 750 locations. Another recent sign of difficulty was CEO Jack Chadsey's departure in December after just two months on the job.Yes, I think it's safe to say that when a CEO quits after two months, it's a bad sign.
A fixture supplier filed suit yesterday: "Excel Fixtures alleged the company misrepresented its financial condition when Excel took on a large job with Musicland, and said it has not been paid for nearly $800,000 worth of work."
The "advertising" increases will apparently also include promotional activities and pricing:
Since then, sales of General Mills' Big G cereals have improved as competitors' prices, particularly on promoted products, have crept up. General Mills also lowered its prices on promoted products, further narrowing the price gap.
"We adjusted our merchandising strategy and competitors eventually moved their merchandising prices upward," Sanger said, adding that the company expected to log year-over-year market share gains in the coming months.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Somewhere in the forest, a tree is cut down. It is loaded onto a giant truck and hauled a vast distance to a factory, where the trees [are] turned into huge rolls of paper. These rolls are loaded onto another truck and hauled another vast distance to another factory, where they are covered in ink, chopped up, folded, stacked, tied and loaded onto a third set of trucks, which fan out across cities and regions dropping bundles here and there.
Printing plants no longer have the clickety-clack of linotype machines and bubbling vats of molten lead. The letterpress machines that stamped the ink on the paper have been supplanted by offset presses that transfer it gently. There is computer-controlled this and that. Nevertheless, the process remains highly physical, mechanical, complicated and noisy. As we live through the second industrial revolution, your daily newspaper remains a tribute to the wonders of the first one.
Meanwhile, back to those bundles. Some of them are opened and the newspapers are put, one by one, into plastic bags. Bagged or unbagged, they are loaded onto a fourth set of vehicles -- bicycles by legend; usually, these days, a car or small truck -- and flung individually into your bushes or at your cat. Other bundles go to retail establishments. Still other newspapers are locked into attractive metal boxes bolted into the sidewalk. Anyone who is feeling lucky and happens to possess exact change has a decent shot at obtaining a paper or, for the same price, carting away a dozen.I'd like to go on quoting, because it's all good, but I might get into copyright trouble, so I suggest you follow the link and read it at WaPo's site. They need the readers.
For instance, Philips Lighting Company, a unit of Royal Philips Electronics, provided the Home Depot store in Aspen Hill, Md., with a $1,000 monthly credit to cover the cost of damaged light bulbs, according to Davis.
As long as the amount didn't exceed $1,000, Philips would accept the charge, no questions asked.
Davis said he was told by his superiors to charge Philips slightly less than the $1,000 ceiling each month, even if the actual damages totaled less than that amount.
As the Post notes: "The SEC investigation and legal action at Home Depot mirror similar complaints against other retailers, notably Saks Inc. and Federated Department Stores, which are accused of overcharging suppliers in a variety of ways."
Home Depot denies the charges.
One is that China still does not have many solidly-established national brands and that 90% of the market is held by local brands, a factor that will change no doubt, but is currently supported by requirements that many products be sourced locally through state-approved vendors.
The historical/political basis for this is particularly interesting, I think:
Of the factors leading to the current localized structure of the Chinese market, one is a definite holdover of the Maoist period when every village was designed to be self-sufficient. Moving goods from one city to another, as in an inter-store transfer or conventional regional distribution strategy, would require approval of local officials.
Recordkeeping is critical in an environment that focuses on local sourcing for local consumption. When Wal-Mart started in China, there were 21 documents for every purchase order. Every store had to write its own purchase orders by hand and issue checks. Now, many of the suppliers use Retail Link, the same online portal Wal-Mart's suppliers in the U.S. use to communicate electronically with the retailer. Things may be easing up a little, but the rules are still there, says Hatfield.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Being #3 is a bad position to be in these days.
Thursday Update: Yesterday's link included a sentence saying, "Its largest shareholder, K Capital Partners LLC, demanded in November that the board of directors take immediate steps to improve its "dismal" financial and operating performance."
Now, K Capital has asked in a filing with the SEC that the company be sold:
"We believe the best path forward for your shareholders is obvious," K Capital said in a letter on Tuesday and included in Wednesday's filing. "Why should a company's shareholders have to run a proxy contest to convince its board to do the right thing?"
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
At first glance, the figures are disastrous: During the last nine weeks of 2005, Sears' sales were down a stomach-turning 12%. The Kmart half of the merger looked good, by comparison, even with a miserable 1% sales increase. And some analysts weren't slow to point out the obvious:
... the disappointing finish to 2005 raises questions about how long Sears can continue to hemorrhage customers and remain in the game with more nimble players such as Target, Home Depot and Kohl's.Big parts of the reason for the miserable sales were the decisions to cut back on promotional pricing and on advertising -- both driven by Chairman Lampert's philosophy on retailing.
"As a retailer, you can't do what Eddie Lampert is doing and stay in business," said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting and investment banking firm in New York City.
A hedge fund operator who lives in Connecticut, Lampert is a strong believer in not giving away merchandise at bargain prices to pump up top-line sales numbers. Likewise, he is leery of spending heavily on advertising. Gross profit margins are what Lampert talks about and cares about. He is willing to sacrifice sales if it means bigger profits at the end of the day.Thus far, the retail professionals hate Lampert's approach, but Wall Street loves it:
"It's his strategy to be less promotional," Stern said. "You're cutting advertising expenditures and you are going to sell product at more regular pricing and higher margins. It's very contrary to what most retailers do. It's not about the top line, it's about the bottom line."
Davidowitz concedes the strategy is intentional, but he also believes it is misguided. "Cut the inventory, cut the assortment, raise the prices, cut the help, cut advertising and promotions. It's a unique approach to retailing."It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the long run. Lampert is following one of my core beliefs (profit is more important than volume), but violating another (I have a strong pro-advertising bias), so I'll be watching closely.
That doesn't seem to bother Wall Street.
Sears Holdings stock closed up $1.89, or 1.6 percent, to $117.90. That's a far cry from Sears' 52-week high of $163.50 per share but still well above its 52-week low of $84.51.
The purchase is Home Depot's biggest ever and will double the size of its supply division to $12 billion in revenue, allowing the company to continue its drive to win more professional customers. Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli has made three acquisitions in the past year to expand beyond do-it-yourselfers.Bloomberg speculates that the move is at least partially an attempt to diversify because of incursions into its core business by Lowe's:
Home Depot is making acquisitions as it has become more challenging to find new store locations and sales growth lags behind Lowe's Cos., the second-largest home-improvement retailer.
Home Depot has about 2,000 stores, while Lowe's has about 1,175 and is still expanding into large U.S. cities. Home Depot has boosted sales an average of 12 percent a year over the past five years, compared with an average gain of 18 percent at Mooresville, North Carolina-based Lowe's.
The move would continue a sell-off of stores by Saks, which announced in late October that it is selling roughly 140 stores in its Northern department store group to Bon-Ton Stores Inc. for $1.2 billion. Belk Inc. purchased its Proffitt's and McRae's stores for $623 million in July.But it also featured a big management shuffle -- the Chief Executive and the CEO/Chairman were dumped. I loved the wording concerning the CEO: "The company said Wilson quit after directors decided to eliminate the position." Doesn't having your position eliminated mean you've been fired? How do you quit at that point?
Today, the Times talks more about the management change and about the likelihood of Saks Fifth Avenue being sold, in addition to Parisian.
An interesting point in today's article is the comparison of operating margins at three leading luxury chains:
- Neiman-Marcus 9.7%
- Nordstroms 7.7%
- Saks Fifth Avenue 3.0%
Monday, January 09, 2006
Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, has ruled out making a significant acquisition in the United States, but plans to expand in China, where he wants the company to be a major force.
In an interview with The Observer, Sir Terry said: 'People have talked about businesses in the US that could be bought, but I don't think they are right for us. We have had researchers in America, but I can tell you that we have no current plans to make an acquisition there.'
China is viewed differently. Tesco last year announced a £140m investment by taking a 50 per cent stake in China's Hymall chain. Leahy said: 'We will have to scale up in China, it's such a big place that you either have to ease out or commit quite a bit.' But he adds that this would take many years to achieve.
Leahy didn't explain his reasons for not wanting to enter the US, except to say that "the US is a competitive market; it's a challenging place."
Saturday, January 07, 2006
The Chicago Tribune reports that TRU will close 73 stores this spring, in addition to converting twelve other stores to Babies R Us outlets. This will leave 587 Toys R Us stores.
Schumer asked for the following rules on rebates, according to Promo magazine:
- Companies must provide consumers at least 30 days to redeem their rebates and must fulfill the terms of the rebate within the same amount of time required of consumers but it should not exceed 60 days.
- Companies must take steps to send the rebate check in a manner which identifies the piece of mail as the expected rebate check.
- Companies must accept copies of receipts, not just originals.
- Companies cannot require consumers to write identifying information on the rebate form unless the receipt does not identify the purchased product.
- Companies offering rebates may not require information that is not necessary to process the rebate, including information other than name, address and phone number.
- Companies must provide telephone numbers or contact information for rebate inquiries so consumers are able check on the status of their rebates.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
A jingle campaign today would be expensive and high risk because jingles require head-banging repetition, says Larry Londre, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. In the past, national advertisers could guarantee jingle saturation by buying time on the big three TV networks, whereas now they would have to include technology's new media platforms: cable, the Internet, satellite radio.
"You need the old media environment to make it work," Garfield says.
The jingle, the article notes, has been replaced by old rock songs, which hearers already recognize.
- Wal-Mart up 2.2%
- Aeropostale up 11.4% (double what had been predicted)
- American Eagle up 9.8% (3.3% had been expected)
- Federated up 3.4%
- Kmart up 1.0% (and announcing layoffs and closings)
- Sears down 11.9% (ouch!)
- J.C. Penney up 2.2% (considering the talk about how hot they are, not that impressive)
- Kohls up 4.6% (double JCP)
- Limited Brands up 3%
- Gap down 9.0% (and the analysts want the CEO's scalp)
- Target up 4.7% (more than double Wal-Mart)
- CVS up 7.3%
- Nordstrom up 7.7%
- Abercrobie & Fitch up 29% (with this and Aeropostale and American Eagle, the teens must have shopping up a storm this year)
- Wilsons down 7.0%
- The Bombay Company down 3.5%
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
The article suggests that branded manufacturers should broaden their product lines to compete:
Private label variation is the key to success, with retailers creating value, mainstream and premium product lines under a single private label banner, thus managing to capture all consumer groups.I think this could be one approach, but I would worry, if I had a premium brand, that I might be diluting the brand image by going downscale, if I followed this advice.
Datamonitor suggests famous brands may gain from following suit as consumers demand a greater range of choice, and expect similar product quality combined with greater value.
The answer, of course, is that there is no connection.
However, in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, we have the opposite extreme. There, the local authorities have banned billboards that show women's legs -- in an ad for panty hose.
Acting mayor Vasily Ursu said earlier that showing women’s legs on billboards was contrary to the standards of ethics and advised designers to look for a more creative solution than just capturing bare legs.Actually, perhaps Mayor Ursu can be swayed by the fact that the legs are unlikely to be bare in a panty hose ad.
California passed one of their strange laws saying no seafood could be labeled as "organic". So New Leaf is responding by labeling their Ecuadorian prawns as "Organic-Everywhere-But-California".
By category, the spending was:
- Clothing: $5.2 billion (up 42% from last year)
- Computer hardware and peripherals: $4.8b (+126%)
- Consumer electronics: $4.8b (+109%)
- Books: $3.0b (+66%)
- Toys/video games: $2.3b (-9%)


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Want to join the conversation?
$CAMP said that in 2Q17, the company had total cash and marketable securities of $117MM and total outstanding debt of $143MM. Consolidated effective tax rate, on a GAAP basis, was 15% in 1H17, down from 37% in 1H16, as a substantial portion of $CAMP's pre-tax income is taxed in international jurisdictions with lower rates.
I haven’t seen a drop in banks like this in a long time. Looks like $WFC is still facing pressures from its sales practices scandal..!!
Helping President-elect's America first focus, $WMT set to create 10,000 retail jobs in the US in 2017.
Looks like Trump has his eyes on the $MON and Bayer merger next. He had a meeting with the CEOs and apparently got job promises from them.


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As forecasters predict a drop in temperatures over the next few days, leading vehicle auction company, British Car Auctions (BCA), has released its latest data on 4×4 used sales for Quarter 4 2012
Pricing for Fiat’s rugged new Panda 4×4 and Panda Trekking has just been announced by Fiat Group Automobiles UK. Part of the incredible Panda story – 6.5 million cars built over more than 30 successful years – the 4×4 version…
Vauxhall’s Antara SUV gets a fresh new look inside and out when it goes on sale next month, along with entry-level pricing which now starts at under £20k – nearly £3,000 less than the outgoing model.
Suzuki’s SX4 is a distinctive five-door hatchback that blends the characteristics of sporty compacts exemplified by the Swift, with those of lightweight SUVs such as the Grand Vitara, to create an exciting small car alternative.
The 2011 Freelander 2 model range, on sale in the UK from the end of September 2010, benefits from a new 2.2-litre diesel engine available with either 150PS or 190PS outputs, a new look exterior plus interior alterations including new instrument dials and a new Premium Pack option.


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Vodacom is celebrating its 30th birthday this year. It was founded in 1993 as a joint venture between Telkom, Vodafone, and Venfin.
Vodacom’s origins date back to 1991 when an investigation into the cellphone industry in South Africa began. The outcome showed that the future would be in GSM technology.
In early 1993, South Africa’s cabinet ministers authorised two cellular licenses after it decided to create a competitive mobile market.
The government forced applicants to say how their choice of technology would lead to high usage and low costs. Applicants also had to show how they would support South African industry and provide service to poor communities.
Vodacom, which was 50% owned by Telkom, 35% by Vodafone, and 15% by Rupert-linked Venfin, was awarded one of the licenses.
In September 1993, Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) was announced as the winner of the second cellular license.
After political manoeuvring between the governing National Party and African National Congress (ANC), resulting in increased BEE shareholding in the operators, Vodacom and MTN were given the green light.
Vodacom CEO, Alan Knott-Craig, convinced shareholders to spend millions on advertising campaigns to promote their products and services, which would only be launched in 1994.
He believed that first-mover advantage was crucial to establish a strong brand and dominating the South African mobile market.
Vodacom’s first television advertisement featured a blue sky and white clouds advertising airtime.
Vodacom launched its first commercial services on 1 June 1994 and quickly became one of the best-known brands in the country.
The mobile operator’s initial growth projections targeted 250,000 subscribers within ten years, but they quickly realised that demand was much higher. By 2000, Vodacom had over three million users.
Knott-Craig created an exceptional management team, including former Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys, current Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub, and former CTO Andries Delport.
Under his leadership, Vodacom focused on innovation and was behind many world firsts in the mobile industry.
There was a particularly strong focus on network quality. Knott-Craig was fanatical about having the best mobile network in South Africa and went to extreme lengths to achieve it.
Vodacom and MTN rapidly expanded coverage across South Africa and rolled out the latest technologies as soon as they become available.
Despite the fierce competition between the two telecoms powerhouses, the lead Vodacom established against MTN in the nineties is still there today.
Here are a few of the highlights from Vodacom over the last thirty years.
1993 – Vodacom is founded as a joint venture between Telkom (50%), Vodafone (35%), and Venfin (15%).
April 1994 – South Africa’s first democratic elections are held, during which the government agreed to a limited test phase before commercial switch-on. 1,250 cell phones were distributed to election officials.
1994 – Vodacom’s network is officially switched, and it launches commercial mobile voice services. Vodacom connected 10,000 customers on the first day, with 50,000 in the first four weeks and 100,000 in the first five months.
1995 – Vodacom expanded outside of South Africa after being awarded a license to operate in Lesotho.
1995 – Vodacom sponsors the South African national rugby team, the Springboks, winners of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
1996 – The erection of Vodacom’s first cellular mast disguised as a palm tree in Durbanville, Western Cape.
1996 – Vodacom launched Vodago, its prepaid service, and connected 60,000 customers in the first month.
1996 – Vodafone and Venfin sold a 5% stake in Vodacom to Hosken Consolidated Investments, A BEE company, for R118 million.
1998 – Vodacom launches prepaid Internet access – a world first.
1998 – Vodacom opens Vodaworld in Midrand, the world’s first cellular shopping mall.
1999 – Vodacom is awarded a GSM license in Tanzania.
2000 – Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig with many of his executives.
2000 – Vodafone acquired a 40% holding in SafariCom, the largest mobile operator in Kenya. SafariCom became an important strategic partner for Vodacom.
2001 – Vodacom becomes Tanzania’s largest mobile network provider after one year of operations. It provides coverage to Mount Kilimanjaro, which became the highest point in the world to be covered by a GSM network.
2001 – Vodacom completes its R124 million Century City regional headquarters in Cape Town.
2002 – Hosken sold its 5% stake back to Vodafone and Venfin for R1.5 billion, through which it made a 1,171% profit. Vodacom launches in the DRC.
2003 – Vodacom launched in Mozambique.
2003 – Vodacom’s coverage extends to more than 900,000 square kilometres of South Africa’s roads and over 95% of the population.
2004 – Vodacom launches 3G in South Africa. 3G technology dramatically increased the speed of data transmission.
2004 – Vodacom South Africa surpasses the 10 million customer mark.
2005 – Vodacom launched Vodafone Live! in South Africa.
2006 – Vodafone increases its shareholding in Vodacom to 50%.
2006 – Vodacom launches a 3G High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network in South Africa. Vodacom Ventures launched.
2007 – Vodacom buys a stake in WBS/iBurst.
2008 – Vodacom Business launched at a glitzy affair in Sun City.
2008 – Pieter Uys took over from Alan Knott-Craig as Vodacom CEO on 1 October 2008.
2008 – Telkom sold a 15% share of their holding in Vodacom for R22.5 billion. This is regarded as one of the biggest blunders in South African telecommunications history.
2009 – Vodacom listed on the JSE. Vodafone increased its shareholding in Vodacom to 65%.
2011 – Vodacom rebranded and changed its logo colour from blue to red.
2012 – Vodacom is the first network to launch LTE in South Africa.
2012 – Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub takes over from Pieter Uys.
2013 – Vodacom announced a R7 billion deal to acquire Neotel, but the deal later fell through.
2014 – Vodacom covers 99.8% of the population in South Africa.
2015 – Vodacom reaches 65 million active customers.
2018 – Vodacom launched commercial 5G in Lesotho. It was a first in Africa.
2020 – Vodacom donates 20,000 smartphones, 100 terabytes of data, and 10 million voice call minutes to the National Department of Health to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
2020 – Vodacom signs a landmark agreement with Alipay to drive digital and financial inclusion.
2021 – Vodacom enters the largest deal in its history, exchanging R43 billion to acquire Vodafone’s Egypt operations.
2021 – Vodacom launches the VodaPay super app in South Africa.
2022 – Safaricom Ethiopia switches on its network and services in Addis Ababa. Through its 34.9% stake in Safaricom and its 6.2% direct stake in Safaricom Ethiopia, Vodacom Group holds an effective 25.7% interest in the Safaricom Ethiopia business.
2023 – Vodacom turns 30!
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Chicago | Reuters –– Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures ended lower on Monday on fund liquidation and bearish fundamentals, traders said.
December ended down 0.075 cent per pound at 161.975 cents and February ended 0.425 cent/lb. lower at 161.75 cents (all figures US$).
Even though the overall supply of U.S. cattle is the lowest in decades, heavier-weight cattle are currently putting more beef in the pipeline at a time when slaughter schedules are slowing, said Dominic Varricchio at Schwieterman Inc.
Monday morning’s choice wholesale beef price was up 86 cents per hundredweight (cwt) from Friday at $245.89. Select cuts rose $1.40 to $235.50, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
Beef packer margins for Monday were a negative $139.20 per head, compared with a negative $115.55 on Friday and a negative $106.50 a week earlier, according to Colorado-based analytics firm Hedgersedge.com.
Last week, slaughter cattle in the U.S. Plains sold mostly at $164/cwt, down about $3 to $4 from the week before.
CME feeder cattle futures fell their three cents/lb. daily price limit on technical selling and live cattle market losses.
January and March ended at 222.6 cents/lb. and 218.25 cents/lb., respectively.
Hogs turn up
CME lean hogs edged higher after trading lower most of the session, pressured by fund selling and weaker cash hog prices, traders said.
February lean hogs closed 0.025 cent higher at 83.275 cents/lb. and April at 84.825 cents/lb., up 0.475 cent.
The CME lean hog index at 88.05 lent some support while the market waits for cash hog prices to improve, Varricchio said.
“Pork’s discount to beef should help demand in both the retail and wholesale markets,” he said.
Pork packers have been less aggressive buyers, seeking to keep their profit margins in the black as impending holiday closures crimp slaughter schedules.
Most packers have all the hogs they need until the end of the year, but some may need light amounts by the middle of the week, hog dealers said.
Monday morning’s Iowa-Minnesota average hog price was not available from the U.S. government, but Midwest regional dealers said prices were down at least 50 cents to $1/cwt.
— Meredith Davis reports on ag commodity markets for Reuters from Chicago.


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This week the ‘Stare of the Dog’ takes another look back at Dudley’s puppyhood and in particular, explores the fond memories I have of basic training. 811 more words
Tags » Bernie Madoff
Here’s an event that makes bitcoin strange and scary to most of its potential investors.
Pavel Lerner, the CEO EXMO, a UK-based cryptocurrency exchange, was kidnapped in Kiev. 289 more words
President Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin And His Brother Pocketed $3.2 Milion From Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme
The death of wannabe Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s mother could not have come at a better time for him and his brother. 202 more words
It could have been worse…
There’s good news. And there’s bad news. Well, for Macy’s anyway. So let’s start with the bad because, why not. The department store chain just released its third-quarter earnings and very unhappily reported that comparable same-store sales fell 3.6%. 541 more words
and all these associates
and even Stevie Wonder can see whats up.
you can’t tap dance with russia and then talk all wreckless about other folks. 58 more words


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192 results for ***"iphone"
Enlarge / The iPhone X in space gray (left) compared to the iPhone XS in gold (right). You can barely tell the difference from this angle. (credit: Samuel Axon) Apple struck a huge deal that will push its chip-making ambitions forward. The tech giant agreed to pay $600 million in…
Source: Ars Tecnicha – Biz & IT : Apple bets 0 million on improving Apple Watch, iPhone battery life
Apple‘s most colorful iPhone X is also its most affordable 2018 model.
Source: CNET – Reviews: iPhone XR: Why you should probably wait for this iPhone – CNET
A new report from Bloomberg confirms previous rumors and lines up with Ming-Chi Kuo’s original report from November 2017. It sounds likely that Apple is going to introduce three new phones in September — an updated iPhone X, a bigger phone and a successor to the iPhone 8 with the…
Source: TechCrunch – Gadgets: Apple could introduce three devices with iPhone X design
If you’re on the prowl for a new Android, Galaxy, or iPhone, read our full guide to the best smartphones of 2018.
Source: Mashable: Best Smartphones of 2018: Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, iPhone
Android Pie is finally here to make Android phones run smoother and save more battery life.
Source: CNET – Reviews: Android Pie gives Android gestures like the iPhone X — and it’s not bad – CNET
Enlarge (credit: Samuel Axon) A key chip supplier for iPhones, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., said the virulent WannaCry ransomware worm infected its production lines over the weekend. The incident shows how the malicious malware continues to leave a wake of $100 million-plus losses 15 months after it first took flight.…
Source: Ars Tecnicha – Biz & IT : Key iPhone supplier is hamstrung with the debilitating WannaCry worm
Several dummy units of future iPhone models have leaked over the weekend. It gives a good idea of what you should expect to see in September when Apple introduces the next iPhone. Most likely, the iPhones on these photos aren’t actual iPhones. They are just dummy units. Every year, a…
Source: TechCrunch – Gadgets: This is what the next iPhone could look like
iPhone 7 Plus/8 Plus Protective Case Cover For Apple iPhone (Black)
Source: CNET – Deals: iPhone 7 Plus/8 Plus Protective Case Cover For Apple iPhone (Black)
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki on Friday promised the company would do a better job with communicating to creators about its experiments and tests. Today, YouTube is making good on that commitment with an update about a new feature it’s testing out: an Explore tab, aimed at offering viewers a more diverse set…
Source: TechCrunch – Social: YouTube is testing its own ‘Explore’ tab on iPhone
Apple has been having a rough time in India including the loss of three key executives as it continues to struggle to beat single-digit market share in the country, which is the third-largest market for smartphones in the world, according to a weekend report in Bloomberg.Read more…
Source: Gizmodo : Report: Apple Restructuring Its India Sales Division After Weak iPhone Sales in First Half of 2018


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This autumn Ferrari will unveil the replacement for the 430 series. The new car is radically different too. New engine and transmission, new gearbox, all-new structure, new driver aids.
The basic structure of the current 430 is a modified version of the 360’s aluminium frame. But for the new car – name unknown – the structure and chassis will be completely new. It’s a blank-sheet car, for the stylists, aerodynamicists and engineers. We know this because it’s going to be built on a new production line, the one Ferrari installed for the California.
The new car will go faster than the current 430 while using less fuel. We’re talking about power well north of 500bhp, 0-62 in under 4seconds and breaking the 200mph barrier then. It keeps a V8 engine, but direct injection (as recently fitted to the 911 Carrera) gives it the efficiency. The new fuel system is well able to work even at the 8000rpm-plus of the screaming Ferrari V8.
As to the size of the engine, we frankly don’t know. Our Ferrari engineers are keeping schtum, but we’ve heard two sets of rumours. First, it’ll grow towards 5.0 litres. Second, it’ll shrink, but get turbos.
There’s no F1-style KERS yet. Ferrari says it’ll be about 2012 before we see it in a road car. Look, they can’t even get it working reliably in a racer yet.
But more efficiency gains in the engine can come from careful internal friction improvements. Which might sound dull, but last year they quietly cut the official consumption of the 599 by 15 percent without harming power.
The transmission is new. No more is it the single-clutch F1 type, even though with the 430 Scuderia Ferrari honed that to a pitch of speed and smoothness no other manufacturer has got close to.
No, for the new car it’s a twin-clutch seven-speed. It’s the one from the California, but its shift strategy is faster and more aggressive for the mid-engined car. Ferrari engineers are very proud of this gearbox. It’s as compact and as light as the six-speed F1, whereas Porsche’s PDK is 30kg more than a 911’s manual box.
Ferrari engineers tell us they’ve made major breakthroughs with stability control electronics. They say they can now make the cars as quick around a track with the electronics on as off, even with genius test drivers at the wheel never mind normal human beings. With the E-Diff and F1-Trac, the new base car is likely to get close to a current Scuderia on the track.
And yet the engineers insist it’ll be comfortable. For the California, they had to design new strategies for the adaptive damping to stretch the possible compromise. They made the California as sporty as a Ferrari should be but more smooth-riding. Now they can up the ante on the new mid-engined car, by shifting the compromise the other way: just as comfy as an existing 430, but even sharper to steer.
Though one scooper shot a near-finished car rolling onto a trailer, the test cars driving near Maranello are still heavily disguised. You can tell they have slightly longer wheelbase and marginally wider track compared with the hacked-about 430 bodies that they’re using for disguise. They also have big air scoops above the rear wheels. Aero innovations include ducts to remove air from high-pressure areas such as the wheel-arches and exhaust it without turbulence in spiralling jets at the rear.
We don’t want the car to grow. Its size is already a bit of a nuisance on tight twisty roads. Besides, size means weight. To help fight the pork, some exotic materials will be used in the structure, but it’ll mostly be aluminium.
So what difference does the new assembly line make? Well, the cars are put together in modules, rather than as a series of components bolted to the base shell. This means that they can also be taken to bits in modules when they need servicing. In the first three years, a 599 needs 50 hours’ scheduled maintenance. The comparable figure for the California, manufactured the new way, is just 11 hours.
Because Ferrari has gradually made its cars more and more useable over the past decade, people are driving them more. And that’s why service times matter now.
So it’s going to be a busy year for Ferrari. We don’t even have the California in the UK yet, and the 430 Scuderia Spider 16M isn’t even on the road anywhere. But come autumn, we’ll see official photos of this V8 coupe replacement. Prices? Unknown but high. Desirability? Higher still.


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NATIONAL METHAMPHETAMINE TRAINING & TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER
Latest news: 2-03-2010
Missouri had most meth labs in 2009
Jefferson City, MO - The number of methamphetamine lab busts rose nationally and locally last year by the greatest margins since lawmakers pushed pseudoephedrine products behind pharmacy counters. Nationally, the number of meth labs police seized increased by 27 percent in 2009 — the largest percent increase since 2005 when federal legislation required consumers to sign for the products at pharmacy counters.
Ind. Senate approves meth Rx bill
Indianapolis, IN - A bill aimed at making sure Indiana's methamphetamine laws target people who try to buy cold medicines to make meth is now before the Indiana House. The Senate voted 46-4 for the legislation on Tuesday. The bill requires stores selling medications containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to make clear to customers the legal purchasing limit of those ingredients.
W. Va. lawmakers hear about effects of meth houses
WV - West Virginia’s 29-year-old Crime Victims Compensation Fund pays out about $2 million yearly to innocent victims of crimes. Members of the House Finance Committee were most interested at Wednesday’s budget hearing in the growing amount spent on cleaning up methamphetamine houses after the residents are arrested and jailed. Court of Claims Clerk Cheryle Hall said the agency spends about $100,000 a year helping to make residences that have been used as meth labs livable again.


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Slankets could be one of the top sellers this Christmas says Firebox CEO Ben Fowler. He predicts a boom in retro brands with the shapeless fleecy sofawear manufactured by Slanket likely to be one of the big hits. Other well-known names like Polaroid and Lego are also set to do well.
Another 80s favourite that could be making its way under Christmas trees this year – approximately 30years after it first hit shelves – is the Big Trak – a plastic-fantastic remote-controlled truck with attitude.
Other likely hits this Christmas include tablet computers, eReaders and the Microsoft Kinect which is selling like hot cakes right now, and according to the MD of PIXmania and is tipped to be the number 1 gift this Christmas.
In fact you’ll probably want both a Slanket and Kinect: the more I think about it, they’re an ideal pairing. The Slanket allows for uninhibited movement and the Kinect is all about movement. It’s a match made in heaven.
Slanket, £24.99 on Firebox
Polaroid camera on Firebox
Lego on Firebox
Big Trak, £34.99 on Firebox
eReaders on PIXmania
Microsoft Kinect, on PIXmania


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4D Supply Chain Consulting (4D) has partnered with Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International (HLPFI) as part of a joint initiative to address the skills gap within the supply chain and logistics industry. The objective is to help raise awareness of training needs across the industry through training and continuous professional development (CPD)—supporting companies in finding and retaining the talent needed to take their business forward.
The launch of the HLPFI/4D Training Portal is a first step in helping to face a challenge that is quickly becoming a crisis for the logistics industry: Training and retaining qualified staff. At our dedicated website, you can find a series of CILT-accredited training courses, developed by 4D, where logisticians can learn and update their knowledge base.
The e-learning courses available now include Incoterms® 2020 Made Easy, Letter of Credit Made Easy, and Bill of Lading Made Easy.
In the coming months, 4D will launch two further e-learning courses: Airfreight Essentials Made Easy, as well as Lashing & Securing Made Easy.
Thomas Skellingsted, President of 4D Supply Chain Consulting said: “We at 4D are glad to have partnered up with HLPFI, since this is part of our strategy to ensure our trainings are accessible for end users—either within the industry or for students or individuals within companies who need to update their knowledge when it comes to Letters of Credit, for instance.”
The HLPFI/4D Training Portal is just the first step in a longer journey to improve the industry’s skill set.
David Kershaw, Editor at HLPFI added: “For years, HLPFI has reported on the logistics industry’s ‘brain drain,’ the concentration of knowledge in the minds of the older generations, and a lack of clear learning paths for professionals. The HLPFI/4D Training Portal is a small step towards tackling these perennial issues.
“Together with 4D, we hope to raise awareness of the advantages of e-learning. Having sat the Incoterms® 2020 Made Easy course myself, I can say that the style and supporting materials, as well as the focus on transport, insurance, and liability implications, were highly beneficial.
“We think that the best way to address the issues facing the logistics industry as a whole, when it comes to training, is collectively. We invite all stakeholders from the project logistics supply chain, including forwarders, carriers, training providers and the press, to get in touch and discuss ways in which we can collaborate.”
The HLPFI/4D Training Portal can be seen at: https://www.heavyliftpfi.com/training-portal


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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 12, 2017
KUALA LUMPUR: Port Klang has been impacted this year as key shipping companies chose to shift their operations to Singapore under new alliance agreements, putting a poser over Malaysia’s aggressive plans to expand the logistics industry, The Straits Times reported.
The publication said many of these partnerships are with Beijing, but noted the Ocean Alliance, which includes state-owned China Cosco Shipping, had shifted to PSA Singapore’s terminal from Klang in April. Meanwhile, it said the Chinese and Malaysian governments are still pushing to develop logistics infrastructure, including the RM55 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) to be built and financed by China.
“Only Kuantan Port has Chinese equity so far because it also aids Beijing’s South China Sea claims. Other infrastructure plans have not taken off or are only loans, or worse, just Chinese companies winning construction deals,” Port Klang Authority chairman Lee Hwa Beng was quoted as saying. Data compiled by Northport and Westports show that cargo throughput dropped 8.4% in the second quarter of 2017 to three million 20ft equivalent units (TEU), after nearly four years of increasing loads. Quoting UOB Kay Hian analyst Kong Ho Meng, the publication reported that Westports had guided a decline of between 7% and 12% in volume in 2017, with 2018 prospects remaining murky.
The new alliance has also resulted in a loss of transshipment volumes — goods stored before being shipped to their final destinations — from giants United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) and France’s CMA CGM. It said this could total up to two million TEU per year. Industry officials said the realigning of the two groups has resulted in more than half of Klang’s Asia-Europe calls being shifted to Singapore. There are concerns of oversupply amid plans for new ports such as the RM43 billion Melaka Gateway and another on Carey Island in Klang.
The publication, citing government and industry sources, reported that Chinese companies earmarked to take a stake in the two projects have had reservations over their viability. Moreover, it noted the Malaysian government had approved Westports’ proposal to double its capacity to 30 million TEU, equivalent to PSA’s handling in 2016, despite the shrinking volume year to date. However, it said the Malaysian government has insisted that cargo volumes would rise as the country strengthens links with southern Thailand and Sumatra, Indonesia.
“Only the transshipment volume came down a bit but our local volume [has] increased. We can see strong growth in Malaysia, especially our economic production,” Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai was quoted as saying, adding that Malaysia has a very good relationship with Cosco.


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Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, said earlier Tuesday in a blog post that "in this extraordinary crisis we are taking extraordinary measures to stop the spread of misinformation and disrupt disinformation campaigns online."
Google already had restricted news companies funded by the Russian government from advertising tools and some features on YouTube.
RT Deputy Editor-in-Chief Anna Belkina said in a statement on Tuesday that technology companies that have cut her outlet's distribution have not pointed to "a single grain of evidence that what RT has reported over these days, and continues to report, is not true."
"This collective 'establishment' seems to be terrified of a mere presence of any outside voice for the fear of losing their historically captive audience, if that audience encounters a different perspective," the statement said.
- Front Page
- Pure Politics
- Brands & Companies
- Sebi Set to End Permanent Board Positions
Reining in special rights, ASBA-like system for stock trades, and allowing PEs to become MF sponsors are also on agenda.Vedanta Likely in Talks to Sell 10% in India Unit
With debt repayments up to $2 billion maturing by June, billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources Ltd (VRL) has reached out to investors for a strategic stake sale of up to 10% in India-listed Vedanta Ltd (VEDL), said people with knowledge of the matter.India’s Return to Normalcy has a Price & Households are Paying It
The return to normalcy from the pandemic has turned out costly for households with office and school requirements triggering a spike in prices of items such as shirts, trousers, shoes, coats and school uniforms among others.
Read More News on
ETPrime stories of the day
3 mins read
India’s rich are growing in numbers, but why luxury car sales aren’t. (Think value-seeking buyers)
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Cranes at the Hanjin Shipping container terminal at Incheon New Port in Incheon, South Korea. Reuters
Taiwan’s export orders contracted for an eighth straight month in June, with global companies increasingly hesitant to make new investments in machinery as the China-US trade war wears on.
Japan’s exports likely fell for an eighth straight month in July, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, as a protracted US-China trade war and weak global demand hurt shipments from the world’s third-largest economy.
China’s exports unexpectedly returned to growth in July on improved global demand despite escalating US trade pressure, but the rebound may be short-lived as Washington prepares to slap even more tariffs on Chinese goods.
Australia’s central bank (CB) held its cash rate at an all-time low on Tuesday, in a widely expected decision, and said it will help buttress the economic recovery by maintaining its accommodative approach as long as the support is required.
Lufthansa announces a 20% cut in leadership positions and the reduction of 1,000 administrative jobs,
Following a Monday slide, the greenback was steady on most majors and clung on near a two-week low against a basket of currencies , tracking the mood in equity markets.


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Microsoft: extends collaboration with Paysafe
(CercleFinance.com) - Paysafe and Microsoft have decided to extend their collaboration, with Paysafe's prepaid eCash solution paysafecard now accepted on Microsoft.
com and Xbox.com in both the US and eight other European countries: their collaboration now spans 31 countries.
This latest development means that millions of new customers in the US and Europe who do not have access to traditional online payment solutions or who prefer not to share their credit card information online can now make cash purchases on Microsoft.com and Xbox.com.
The paysafecard prepaid payment solution, available in 50 countries through a distribution network of 700,000 retail outlets, enables consumers to use cash to pay for services online.
Copyright (c) 2022 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.


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HAMMOND, Ind. –
CBF Forensics, a northwest Indiana forensic and education startup, has launched two new products: virtual reality (VR) programming for forensic crime scene training and a system to quantify the amount of THC in manufactured CBD and hemp products.
Crime by the F.I.V.E.S.
Crime by the F.I.V.E.S. provides training scenarios that simulate live scenes using VR technology.
Charles Steele is the founder and president of CBF Forensics. He said the Crime by the F.I.V.E.S. VR crime scene training program brings the latest technology and methods to forensic science classrooms and law enforcement agencies, providing affordable and standardized training.
“Crime scene investigation training is inconsistent across the country; there is currently no national standard. Most initial training takes the form of mock crime scenes that are not governed by global standards or requirements,” said Steele, who also is a lecturer of forensic science and the forensic science coordinator at Purdue University Northwest (PNW). “The professional training that does exist is out of the economic range for most law enforcement agencies and is completely unavailable for most educational institutions.
“In addition, it is common for agencies to become entrenched in existing methods and not be aware of the latest technology,” Steele said. “As a result, practitioners and new students often learn and use outdated methods.”
The Crime by the F.I.V.E.S. VR training program connects to in-person, real-world laboratory exercises that can be used to fill out a full semester course.
“This educational approach allows the latest methods to be economically passed on to the general practitioner,” Steele said. “Where possible, CBF Forensics will provide the latest support chemistry and devices to complement these scenarios.”
Crime by the F.I.V.E.S. will be accessible through school and private learning management systems. Steele said it improves upon other VR crime scene training tools on the market by providing better features and functionality.
“The simulations follow real physics; if a user bumps into an item, it will move and possibly corrupt the crime scene. The visibility of evidence matches real-world optics,” Steele said. “Crime by the F.I.V.E.S. is just the first in what will be a series of crime scene training scenarios. The original program was built by CIVS, the Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation, at PNW. CIVS is a leader in the simulation field, and our relationship will allow CBF Forensics to continue to produce the highest-quality products.”
Along with Crime by the F.I.V.E.S., CBF Forensics will offer additional forensics products for fingerprinting and blood detection applications. Steele said those products will be launched later in 2023.
CBF Forensics also has created QuanTHC, a system that enables CBD and hemp manufacturers to measure the amount of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, in their products. THC is the main psychoactive compound in marijuana.
Steele said CBD products must be free of THC, and hemp products cannot be above certain THC levels. He said up to 70% of CBD products sold in northwest Indiana contain THC, and hemp products are not monitored, which puts manufacturers and consumers at risk of legal and financial consequences.
“Innocently purchased hemp products may violate local laws,” Steele said. “Users of CBD products may face criminal charges for having THC in their blood and lose their jobs and military careers, etc. The manufacturers face civil liability for the harm done to their customers.”
Steele said most boutique manufacturers have no viable way to test the quantity of THC in their CBD and hemp products.
“QuanTHC provides an easy-to-use quantification test that does not require expensive analytical equipment or extensive chemical training,” Steele said. “It offers accurate quantification levels, which improves upon traditional tests that have only yes-no indicators.”
By 2024, CBF Forensics will pair QuanTHC with a benchtop neutralizer that disposes of all the test chemicals used in the quantifications.
A marketing video about Crime by the F.I.V.E.S. and QuanTHC is available on YouTube.
A historic startup
CBF Forensics licenses its technologies, developed by Steele and collaborators, through the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization. CBF Forensics is the first startup launched from Purdue Northwest through the Purdue Innovates office. Purdue University Northwest, serving northwest Indiana, offers more than 70 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs to nearly 9,000 students.
CBF Forensics has received support from PNW’s College of Engineering and Sciences and the Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation, student research groups at Purdue Northwest’s chemistry and physics department, and student Capstone Plus teams at the Purdue Polytechnic Institute at the West Lafayette campus.
“These student teams are a valuable resource,” Steele said. “Startup companies like ours do not have the resources of a fully staffed R&D laboratory.”
Steele is especially grateful to Kenneth C. (Chris) Holford, Purdue Northwest’s provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, whose office provided the initial funding to bring the forensic research at PNW and state-of-the-art VR training at CIVS together.
“The launch of CBF Forensics highlights the impact that Purdue Northwest can have in working with entrepreneurs to advance research that leads toward product commercialization,” Holford said. “I believe that commercialization of research products in partnership with the university through entities like the new PNW Impact Lab will play an increasingly important role in future regional economic development.”
CBF Forensics also received support from Purdue’s Technical Assistance Program, or TAP40, and Purdue’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Steele said he is grateful to have worked with the people and university resources.
“Going through the process of starting the company, we have worked with dozens of students and faculty across three campuses within the Purdue system,” Steele said. “We have also worked with business and science professionals through Purdue Research Foundation and the University of Illinois Chicago’s forensic science program. We are excited to be open for business.”
About CBF Forensics
CBF Forensics (CBF) is unique in its capabilities and product offerings. We integrate innovative software, chemistry and devices for forensic science and higher education as well as adjacent industries. Our namesake product Crime by the F.I.V.E.S. is a first-of-its-kind nonscripted, data-driven virtual reality (VR) crime scene investigation training package that teaches the standards of crime scene investigation and introduces new technologies. No other VR company has our expertise in forensic science. Between Charles A. Steele and Dr. A. Karl Larsen, we have more than 70 years of combined forensic expertise. Both have run professional laboratories and forensic science academic programs. CBF also offers notable products like QuanTHC, which quantifies the THC levels for cannabis, CBD and hemp product markers, and BluePrint, a rapid development spray for porous materials. Our partners and relationships provide us with high-quality development and production resources that allow us to design and provide products for education, law enforcement and small manufacturing. Contact [email protected] for more information.
About Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization
The Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university’s academic activities through commercializing, licensing and protecting Purdue intellectual property. In fiscal year 2022, the office reported 157 deals finalized with 237 technologies signed, 379 disclosures received and 169 issued U.S. patents. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. In 2020, IPWatchdog Institute ranked Purdue third nationally in startup creation and in the top 20 for patents. The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Contact [email protected] for more information.
About Purdue University Northwest
Purdue University Northwest (PNW) is a premier metropolitan university dedicated to empowering transformational change in our students and in our community. Located in Northwest Indiana, near Chicago, PNW values academic excellence, supports growth and celebrates diversity. For more information about PNW, visit www.pnw.edu.


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The startup rate for women-led businesses has recovered from the recession, and women of color are leading the way.
In 2014, women opened the doors of 887 new businesses every day, up from 602 in 2011. Women of color contributed to more than half of that growth last year, opening on average nearly 500 businesses daily, according to the new 2015 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, prepared with Census data by Womenable, a research organization supporting women's entrepreneurship, and commissioned by American Express OPEN.
Overall, the number of women-owned firms has grown by 17 percent between 2007 and 2014, almost triple the rate of growth (7 percent) between 2007 and 2012 at the height of the recession. Since 1997, the number of female-run businesses has grown by 74 percent, well above the national growth rate of 51 percent for all firms. Women now run more than 9.4 million businesses in the United States.
Change in firms, employment, and revenue, 1997-2015
Nonwhite entrepreneurs have been steadily contributing to the growth of women-owned firms over the past two decades. In 1997, they represented one-in-six female entrepreneurs and ran just under 1 million businesses. Today, women of color own more than 3 million businesses across the United States, and one out of every three female entrepreneurs is a woman of color. Their businesses employ 1.6 million workers and generate more than $260 billion in annual revenue.
Of those businesses, African-American women own 1.3 million, Latinas 1 million, and Asian women more than 700,000. Asian women report the highest average revenues per firm, ($170,723), followed by Latinas ($68,479), and African-American women ($39,893).
Firms owned by nonwhite female entrepreneurs, 2015
Businesses owned by women of color tend to be smaller in terms of their average employment and revenue. But their growth, both in numbers and in their economic clout—the combined average of their growth, revenue, and employment—continues to outpace that of their white peers.
That overall business growth for women of color is so high partly because they were starting from a lower base, but the report's authors say their findings demonstrate that "business ownership is an increasing career path for all women."
African-American women-owned firms represent the largest share of all women's businesses in Georgia (35 percent), Maryland (33 percent), and Illinois (22 percent). States with the highest share of Latina businesses among women-owned firms are New Mexico (31 percent), Texas (26 percent), and Florida (25 percent). Asian women make up the highest share of women-owned firms in Hawaii (56 percent), California (18 percent), and New Jersey (11 percent).
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