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FOLLOWING Britain’s decision to leave the EU back in May, high street retailers may be forced to raise their prices.
With new trading regulations imposed set to be posed on them when Britain leaves the EU, companies could be forced to raise prices of products such as clothing and shoes by 16%.
For the people of Salford, this could prove expensive for visitors of the Outlet Mall at the quays.
The Outlet Mall houses big brands such as Marks and Spencer and GAP and has grown massively in popularity with the MediaCityUK complex neighbouring it.
But prices rising would not be good for the consumer and could see the end of this rise in popularity.
Regular shoppers Craig and Eileen Watson said that should prices rise it may put them off going since they also have to pay for the bus to get from the centre of Salford to the Quays to get to the Mall.
With Salford’s decision to vote ‘out’, their people may now have to put up with a pricier shopping trip on their door step.
With Article 50 set to be put in motion by Prime Minister Theresa May this coming Spring, the ball will be set rolling on Britain’s exit from the European Union and more expensive shopping shows a potential down side to the countries decision in which Salford so heavily backed.


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Chip designer ARM topped the list of European gainers afterits partner Apple unveiled two new iPhones, while the recedingthreat of U.S. military action in Syria helped keep Europeanshares near three-month highs.
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The Off Shore Gambling Association (OSGA) will be celebrating March Madness today in Las Vegas and will be promoting their event through use of QR codes. The codes will be featured on clothing worn by the OSGA Girls and will be fully functional. Scanning the codes with a smart phone will take smart phone users to a mobile site where they can download content from the OSGA.
Starting March 16th, anyone that scans the QR codes will be able to download exclusive content. The OSGA Insider Betting Guide to March Madness is available only to those that scan the codes. Additionally, The OSGA will enter scanners into a contest where they can win a 1979 NCAA Championship photo signed by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The photo is valued at $550 and only those that scanned the QR codes will be eligible to win.
QR codes will be featured on clothing that has been custom made for the event. For more than a decade, the OSGA has been committed to providing consumers with the latest information and services in the industry. By using the codes, they are taking a big step forward in interacting with consumers and providing more dynamic content.
The OSGA will also be offering access to the March Madness section of their website, where visitors will be able to participate in quizzes, find betting tips, and information on Gambling Tax Deductions. They hope to expand their use of QR in the future and may be implementing the codes within the coming months.
Filed under: Entertainment Industry, Featured News, Mobile Marketing, Trends · Tags: 2d, 2d code scanners, clothing with qr codes, content linked to code, dynamic marketing campaign], dynamic marketing ideas, Las Vegas qr codes, March Madness, marketing trands, marketing with codes, marketing with qr codes, mobile marketing, mobile marketing ideas, mobile marketing news, mobile marketing trends, mobile marketing with qr codes, mobile site, Off Shore Gambling Assoc, OSGA, promo with codes, promotional campaign with qr codes, qr code, qr code app, qr code campaign, qr code contest, qr code scanners, qr code t-shirt, qr code t-shirts, qr code used to promote business, qr codes, qr codes linked to mobile site, scan qr code, scanner app, scanning qr codes, smart phones, unique marketing, unique mobile marketing


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Transparent Flat HD TV-Set
German electronics conglomerate Loewe has showed off a concept of transparent TOLED screen TV-set designed by Michael Friebe. Dubbed as the Loewe Invisio, this television also promises rich color reproduction and superior contrast. Though the TOLED technology is not fully developed yet, the aficionados may hope to see the big screen, transparent TV-set in a couple of years.
Donate ETH: 0x981FcEAAa895C6cee76D2876e9AfC649Dc0C4c75


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.NET Vendor ComponentOne Acquired by GrapeCity
New combined company will have more than 850 employees.
At a pre-TechEd event in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, .NET solution vendor and Microsoft partner GrapeCity announced that it has acquired .NET component and tool vendor ComponentOne.
ComponentOne will now be referred to as "a division of Grape City." The resulting company will have more than 850 employees, according an announcement on the ComponentOne Web site. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
"The acquisition of ComponentOne by GrapeCity will position the company as the forerunner in the Visual Studio industry," the announcement quotes Rick Williamson, General Manager at GrapeCity, as saying. "Past, current, and new clients will benefit from the company’s ability to deliver the most innovative tools for varying platforms and the best performance and user experience on the market."
A list of ComponentOne's product lineup is available here. GrapeCity's products can be found here.
GrapeCity was founded in 1980. According to the companies, GrapeCity and ComponentOne partnered on various projects since 1994.
More information on GrapeCity can be found on the company's Web site, here.
Becky Nagel is the former editorial director and director of Web for 1105 Media's Converge 360 group, and she now serves as vice president of AI for company, specializing in developing media, events and training for companies around AI and generative AI technology. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Users" and other popular AI resources with a real-world business perspective. She regularly speaks, writes and develops content around AI, generative AI and other business tech. Find her on X/Twitter @beckynagel.


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New Delhi: BJP on Friday said the Union Cabinet`s decision to allow power producers to pass on higher cost of imported coal to consumers will burden the people and lead to increase in cost of manufactured products.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar criticised the government decision which will lead to higher power tariffs.
"Allowing passing of high cost of imported coal to consumers by the manufacturers will lead to increase in cost of the products for the consumers," Javadekar said.
He also said the increase in price of electricity will affect the common people or may lead to load shedding.
Javadekar maintained that some units may avoid use of imported coal to cut costs and this will lead to load shedding which will affect the people.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved the pass-through of the proposal which would result increase in power tariff.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram later reasoned that there will be a marginal increase in power tariff depending on the cost of imported coal.
"They (IPPs) can import coal themselves if they wish, otherwise Coal India will import and this additional price which we pay for imported coal, obviously, has to be passed through in the power tariff," Chidambaram said.
He maintained that it is better to have power at high cost than to not have it.


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Keynote Systems Inc. CEO Umang Gupta is determined that his web services testing and monitoring company continues to evolve, and he is banking heavily on the rise of the mobile web, particularly smartphones.
So far his strategy has paid off. Keynote, which went public in 1999, recently posted a $103 million fiscal year, up 19 percent over the prior year and breaking the $100 million milestone for the first time.
“You can’t build a high-technology business around a single technology or idea,” Gupta said in a recent interview. “To build it to last, you have to constantly be listening to the market, looking for changes and adapting to new technologies.”
Gupta said he learned that lesson through bitter experience in 1996 when he had to let go of a path-breaking company he founded, client-server database pioneer Gupta Technologies Inc., when it faltered because it did not respond quickly enough to the rise of the Internet. After 12 years at the helm, Gupta departed. Gupta Technologies, which had gone public in 1993, was sold repeatedly and ultimately subsumed within another company.
Gupta was employee number 17 at Oracle Corp. and he is credited with writing that company’s first business plan. He became chairman and CEO in 1997 of Keynote, now a nearly 500-person San Mateo company that was founded in 1995 to do website testing and monitoring.
Industry analysts note that the company has weathered a brutal pricing war with a competitor, Gomez, which was bought two years ago by Compuware Corp. of Detroit. Since that acquisition, Gupta says pricing competition has been more “rational.”
Now, analysts say, Keynote has positioned itself well to ride the still-nascent explosion of mobile computing.
“Really where they’ve done a masterful job of management is they have invested aggressively in mobile early,” said Curtis Shauger, managing director of Caris & Co. Mobile is possibly the biggest trend in computing at the moment, Shauger said.
Carl Howe, research director at the Yankee Group, agreed.
“The most interesting thing about the Keynote folks is they took up mobile early, before it was cool, as it were,” Howe said.
Today, Keynote says 40 percent of its revenue comes from mobile channels.
In addition to developing its own capabilities starting in 2005, Keynote in 2006 paid $30 million for Sigos, a German mobile data network testing and monitoring system for wireless operators.
Last month, it doubled down on mobile with the $60 million purchase of DeviceAnywhere, a San Mateo mobile web operations testing and monitoring firm that had roughly $20 million in annual revenue, which already pushes Keynote’s revenue past $120 million.
Gupta said Keynote is particularly banking on the growth of smartphones, like the iPhone and Android devices.
“From 2005 on, we have been riding the mobile wave,” Gupta said. “We’ve been very ahead of the technology curve along the way.”


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Kickstarter is getting to be the only way to launch an audacious project. It seems like very time you turn around, a new Kickstarter drive has set a record and raised millions of dollars. It was just last month that Double Fine Adventure reached $3.3 million to make a game. Now the Pebble e-ink watch has become the top project on Kickstarter with more than $5 million in donations.
The Pebble is a smart-looking watch with an e-ink face that does the mundane stuff like tell the time, and tell you what day it is. When paired with a compatible mobile device, it becomes a completely different, and more interesting fashion accessory. The Pebble will pair over Bluetooth to control music, get notifications, caller ID, and it will even pull the full text of messages. The list of stock functions is very cool, but the Pebble will also be extensible with apps. There is a Pebble SDK, and the company plans to deploy an app store of sorts.
It's not too late to risk your hard-earned cash on this device, if you're so inclined. Despite smashing the original goal of $100,000, the folks at Pebble Technology have 29 more days to solicit donations. $115 gets you one of the first batch of Pebble watches, which will reportedly sell for over $150.
For a history of Kickstarter record-breakers, check out this blog post - it's quite fascinating to watch the site's popularity skyrocket over the years.


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Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi Coming This October For Xbox 360, PS3
What’s a news post about a new Naruto game if it isn’t followed by a news post about a new Dragon Ball Z game? It’s nothing, it’s not even real. So to cement that the new Naruto game coming out next year is indeed real, Namco Bandai also announced that a new Dragon Ball Z game is coming out this year for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Vice President of Marketing at NAMCO BANDAI Games America, Carlson Choi had a few words to share about the brand new Dragon Ball Z game, saying…
“Fans of the Dragon Ball series of games are among the most passionate gamers and anime experts in the world,” ... “That’s why we reached out to them through our social channels and forums last month to find out what the name should be for the deepest, richest and most intense Dragon Ball game yet. The fans have spoken, and today we’re happy to announce that Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi will be hitting stores across the country this October.”Yes, because there have been so many Dragon Ball Z games that even Namco Bandai have run out of ideas. Heck, I think there may be more Dragon Ball games than there are Mario games…one day, I will compare them to see.
But before the above happens let’s talk about Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi and what it features: the game will have upgraded environmental and character graphics, with a brand new art-style ripped right from the original Manga. That’s actually kind of cool when you think about it. Also, environments will be completely destructible with all new crater and explosion effects to give gamers a truly immersive feel to the gameplay.
Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi is set to release on October 25th for the Xbox 360 and PS3. All things Dragon Ball Z will be on display at booth #5136 at the Funimation booth #4135 at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Need more info? Feel free to visit the Official Website.
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- President Akufo-Addo has revealed that all is set for the local production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) in Ghana
- He indicated that 3,600,000 face masks will be produced in Ghana with 150,000 being manufactured a day
- President Akufo-Addo also applauded the work of health workers in Ghana and argued they are right to raise concerns about their safety
Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in
President Akufo-Addo has revealed that local manufacturing firms would soon begin the production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).
According to him, the project would kick off on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, and the government is ready to provide support to make this a reality.
He went on to say that “three million, six hundred thousand face masks will be produced domestically, with an output of one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) per day.”
READ ALSO: Finance minister reveals coronavirus could cost Ghana GHC11 billion
Per a report by myjoyonline.com, other items to be produced by the local businesses are face masks, head covers, surgical scrubs and gowns.
The president went on to appreciate the crucial role health workers play in Ghana and admitted they have good reasons to complain about inadequate PPEs to work with.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), in March 2020, raised an alarm about the severe and mounting disruption to the global supply of PPEs.
The WHO revealed that the shortage is being caused by rising demand, panic buying, hoarding and misuse is putting lives at risk from the coronavirus pandemic.
To date, it has shipped nearly half a million sets of personal protective equipment to 47 countries and this has led to a depletion in quantity available to distribute.
It estimates that there is a need for an estimated 89 million medical masks each month to battle COVID-19.
An estimated 76 million examination gloves are needed worldwide and monthly demand for goggles stands at 1.6 million.
The WHO has therefore concluded that manufacturing businesses around the world need to increase the production of the PPEs by 40% to meet demand.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has revealed that small and medium scale businesses in Ghana would benefit from a GHC600 million soft loan package.
According to him, the move is to protect such businesses from the economic impact of the coronavirus.
As part of a nationwide address on Sunday, April 5, 2020, he explained that the plan is to ensure that Ghanaian businesses are still functioning even though industries are affected by the pandemic.
He explained that the soft loan scheme would be implemented with the support of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), business & trade associations and selected commercial and rural banks.
READ ALSO: Ghana's cedi and 5 others ranked as the best currencies in Africa
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Coronavirus in Ghana: Disinfection of Accra Markets against COVID-19 | #Yencomgh
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CVS Pharmacy has listened to its customers and is following the rising calls for brands to portray women in marketing materials in a more authentic and realistic way—sans digital altering. CoverGirl.
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A man was stabbed Wednesday night at a CVS pharmacy in Miami Beach, police said. Miami Beach police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said officers received a call about 8:45 p.m. about.
GREENFIELD — Little about the appearance of the only CVS store in this picturesque old mill city of 17,000 suggests anything remarkable. The cream-colored 24-hour pharmacy occupies. streets stand.
CVS/pharmacy is making it easier for consumers to fill prescriptions on the go with a new SMS program. The SMS program from CVS/pharmacy notifies users when their prescription is ready to be picked up.
WASHINGTON — Changes in the pharmacy industry spurred by the Affordable Care Act helped push drug store giant CVS Caremark to announce Wednesday it will stop selling tobacco products at its.
People seeking virtual care can access it through the CVS Pharmacy app. They’ll be connected with one of Teladoc’s providers rather than a MinuteClinic. CVS says patients will receive the same level.
Palmer Township homeowners packed the township meeting room Wednesday night to oppose plans for a CVS pharmacy in their Freemansburg Avenue. "I don’t see a need for more pharmacies, gas stations or.
SMITHTOWN, NY – Police are looking for a man who robbed a CVS pharmacy in Smithtown. It happened at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the CVS located at 111 Terry Road, police said. The man demanded.
Vitamix Vs Regular Blender We stack the Ninja Blender vs Vitamix and expose the hidden secrets the. veg such as kale and carrots, though the results from the Vitamix were slightly better. Q: Blender
Meanwhile, plans by the online retail giant Amazon to get into the pharmacy business. medical officer of CVS Health, had been hired by Rowe as chief medical officer of Aetna. He credited Brennan.
The pharmacy chain says the products include topicals such as creams, sprays, roll-ons, lotions and salves. These products are available in 8 states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana,
Plans to redevelop the former site of Blockbuster Video at the corner of Magazine Street and Louisiana Avenue into a CVS pharmacy has. separate retail spaces in the mini-strip mall into a single.
This story originally appeared on LearnVest as "These Cities Are Getting New Mini-Target Stores Soon. Some locations offer same-day delivery, a CVS Pharmacy, Starbucks and online order pickup. Here.
CVS) on a mini run since the May 2nd quarterly release. The largest retail pharmacy and second largest pharmacy benefit manager has bested rivals Walgreen’s (WAG), Rite-Aid (NYSE:RAD) and Express.
Easy To Use Extractor Juicer With Little Clean Up Blender Pride Whisky Price In Mumbai Best Cheap Whisky Brands Under 500 1. 8 pm Classic Whisky. The party starts after 8 Pm | Photo Courtesy Of: Pixabay. It is
CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) will report second-quarter earnings after the close on Wednesday, Aug. 7. Ahead of the event, it looks like one options trader may be betting big bucks on a post-earnings.
CVS Pay is built into the newly updated CVS Pharmacy app for iOS and Android devices. CVS Pay works with all major U.S. credit cards, including MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express, in.
Ninja Blender Food Processor Accessories As advertised, simple syrup is simple – just equal parts (by volume) water and sugar that are. Transfer the simple syrup to a container and chill for up to a
user-friendly virtual CVS/pharmacy interface that relies on gesture-based movements that are native to touch-screen tablet environments. Tapping on popular areas of the store from the home screen will.
Most investors see little difference between CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (NYSE:WBA) in the health care market. That is, two pharmacy operators with strong retail.
Earlier this year, Apple reported that Apple Pay was finally coming to CVS. Oddly enough, CVS’ terminals have supported NFC for years, but they intentionally disabled it. I was actually was able to.
The company’s pharmacy operations have been under pressure in recent years. keeping a long-term lid on profits. In addition, CVS faces major exposure if the current legal challenge to the.


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North Texas Restaurant Offers Free Baby Formula To Families Who Need It Most
Every parent that has a newborn at home, has been dealing with the baby formula shortage that has affected our entire nation. Many parents have been driving all over the state trying to find formula for their newborns. Some have been driving for over two hours just to find baby formula to purchase. Thankfully, one North Texas restaurant has stepped up to the plate to help out families in need.
Our Place Restaurant, which is located in Mansfield, has been serving burgers, chicken fried steak, and salads to customers for years. The local restaurant has been able to acquire pallets of baby formula from its distributor that it orders its food ingredients from. KDFW is reporting that the restaurant received 20 boxes of formula last Monday morning.
The restaurant’s owner is giving back to the community by giving baby formula to customers who have newborn babies at home, free of charge. The restaurant’s owner Benji Arslanovski told KDFW that since his customers helped him out by supporting his restaurant during the pandemic, he wants to return the favor by giving baby formula to the families who need it most.
Any parent who has an infant at home can pick up baby formula from the restaurant free of charge. While the restaurant is getting new shipments of baby formula regularly, Arskabivski asks that parents call the business ahead of time to get on the list. You can contact the restaurant by calling 817-473-9996, or by visiting their website at https://ourplacerestaurants.com/mansfield/.


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A 16-year-old Milwaukee boy was so bent on taking an iPod from the Apple Store at Mayfair on Saturday that it took three off-duty law enforcement officers to stop him.
According to the Wauwatosa police report:
Lt. William Brown of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office was standing in line at the store so he could have his phone fixed about 3:30 p.m. When he saw the boy remove a security device from an MP3 player, he introduced himself as an off-duty officer and advised him not to take the item.
The boy refused to listen and pocketed the iPod, then he tried to leave the store. Brown attempted to restrain the boy and ended up getting punched in the face. An off-duty officer from the New Berlin Police Department, who was working as store security, and an off-duty Milwaukee police lieutenant came to Brown's assistance.
Brown refused medical treatment, but later sent Wauwatosa police pictures of his facial injuries.
The boy, who had his 7-year-old nephew with him, had a record of prior incidents of shoplifting and resisting arrest. This time, he was arrested for retail theft and battery and his case was sent to the district attorney's office for review.
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- Wauwatosa hosts wedding expo for same-sex couples
- Wauwatosa's Underwood Elementary students donate candy to troops overseas
- Business Spotlight: Wauwatosa yoga and massage center aims to bring body and mind into focus
- In Wauwatosa, aging tailor joins forces with fashion-designing granddaughter
- WSTEM's outdoor classroom continues learning beyond classroom
- In Brief: Tosa Yoga hosts craft fair and Blood Center gains alliance
- Wauwatosa passes levy increase with four aldermen dissenting
- Wauwatosa man's dream 'Ability Center' could have $15 million annual impact, study finds
- Mystery Photo Contest: Nov. 20
- Duct tape fashion show raises money for Longfellow DI program in Wauwatosa


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DC: Mary Marvel
Updated: Dec 25, 2019
Following her artwork reveal at New York Toy Fair earlier this year, Mary was shown as a painted prototype at SDCC on the 17th of July, and pre-orders have started going up online on the 18th of July.
Riding the Shazam release wave, Mary was a surprise announcement for some fans due to her being a more obscure character. A very cute piece indeed, you'd be crazy to miss out on getting her! She'll definitely be a fun edition to the DC shelves.
Due for release in Japan in December 2019 and the US in January 2020.
Kotobukiya Store links;
Stores recommended by the community;
Hobby Link Japan: https://bit.ly/32ybNen
Nippon Yasan: https://bit.ly/2O3sBqt
Entertainment Earth: https://bit.ly/2kh0aY9
Solaris Japan: https://bit.ly/2lDSAXA
Big in Japan: https://bit.ly/32pmCyb
Action Figuren24: https://bit.ly/2rmgiL3
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Pre-painted Complete Figure Scale: 1/7 Size: Approx. H215mm Material: PVC
Sculptor: James Marsano
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2019 Chevy Camaro Zl1 – In anticipation of the Camaro’s mid-cycle refresh in 2019, Chevy is rolling out the first prototypes of its new, improved sports car. Already, we have seen the basic Camaro test high in the Colorado Mountains, but now we have a first glimpse of the entire updated range on the road, and in the flesh.
While the 2019 Chevy Camaro Zl1 was wearing its current face, the other Camaros have a serious camouflage in the front, which probably indicates an important stylistic update for 2019. Maybe it’s the big camouflage schnoz applied, but the front seems less straight, with maybe even a nose resembling a shark down. That or Chevy went very far to hide a pinch and a minor fold. What is clear, however, is the change of lights. The LED strip has obviously been changed, now extending further up past the point currently occupied by a conventional parking light. The whole area of the lighthouses seems to be a little bigger (the white car offers the best view of the new lighthouses).
The changes at the back seem to be minor. The taillights would appear to have more depth and texture for them, while there is a stubby lip that now runs over the outer parts of the lower bumper above the tailpipes.
While the lineup will only see a few minor aesthetic changes overall, it’s under the hood where most major updates will take place. The range is expected to adopt the new 10-speed automatic currently found on the ZL1.
The SS and ZL1 will likely see some minor power bumps, but more importantly, rumors suggest that Chevy will revive the Z / 28 nickname for the 2019 model year. The new Z / 28 will far exceed 505 horsepower (376 kilowatts) proposed on the outgoing model. We’ll know more details when the 2019 Camaro debuts, probably in early 2018.


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Netfin Acquisition Corp. to Combine with Triterras Fintech Pte Ltd.
Netfin Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company targeting businesses in the fintech industry, and Triterras Fintech Pte Ltd., a leading fintech company for commodity trading and trade finance, have entered into a definitive agreement for Triterras Fintech to become a publicly listed company (the “Business Combination Agreement”). Upon closing of the transaction, a newly formed Cayman holding company to be named “Triterras” will acquire Triterras Fintech and Netfin and register its shares for listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market under a new ticker symbol.
Following Netfin’s announcement of a non-binding letter of intent to combine with Triterras Fintech and its affiliate, Triterras Holdings Pte. Ltd. on June 29, 2020, the parties made the strategic decision for Netfin to combine solely with Triterras Fintech and not with its affiliated Rhodium commodity trading business in order to create a standalone, fast-growing fintech pure-play business with a 100% fee-based platform and no balance sheet exposure.
Recommended AI News: MTA Solutions Brings Unified Communication To Its Customers
Founded in 2018, Triterras Fintech is a leading fintech company focused on trade and trade finance. Its proprietary Kratos™ digital marketplace is one of the world’s largest commodity trading and trade finance platforms that connects and enables commodity traders to trade and source capital from lenders directly online. Triterras Fintech monetizes the Kratos platform by charging fees to its users on their trading and financing transaction volumes. It maintains a presence in key trading centers across the world, including Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S.
Netfin and Triterras Fintech believe Kratos is the only non-petroleum commodity trade and trade finance platform of scale and a first mover in solving critical industry challenges. Kratos solves many of these challenges and directly addresses the $1.5 trillion annual trade finance shortfall reported by the WTO by linking lenders and traders, and allowing them to transact directly on the platform in a significantly more cost-effective, secure and faster way. Sourcing trade finance is identified as the largest issue for many commodity traders.
In fiscal year 2019, Triterras Fintech generated $3.6 billion of transaction volume, $16.9 million of revenue, $14.8 million of EBITDA and $13.2 million of net income. The company projects to generate approximately $7.8 billion of transaction volume, $56.6 million of revenue and $39.8 million of EBITDA for fiscal year 2020 (12 months ending February 28, 2021) and grow at more than a 60% compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”) through 2023.
Trade finance is a $40 trillion industry that provides funding for global trade. Kratos has rapidly become a trusted platform enabling buyers and sellers to trade commodities as well as facilitate short-term trade finance. For traders, the trade financing is critically important to fund physical commodity purchases while in transit and prior to delivery. Kratos provides significant benefits to traders including access to trade finance, lower financing costs, faster cycle times, fraud prevention, improved discovery, and higher quality analytics and reporting. Equally impactful to lenders, Kratos reduces administration costs, abates risk and fraud, and provides access to prequalified and packaged borrowers with anti-money laundering and “know your customer” solutions.
Recommended AI News: Data443 Risk Mitigation Welcomes MR. Omkhar Arasaratnam To Its Advisory Board
“Our business combination with Triterras Fintech creates a leading pure-play fintech company that is digitizing a large and growing industry, while making transactions more cost-efficient, secure and faster,” said Marat Rosenberg, President and Director of Netfin. “This is a high-margin, fast-growing platform business with scale. As a public company with access to capital markets to fund its growth, we believe Triterras Fintech will deliver strong near and long-term value for Netfin shareholders. We look forward to supporting Triterras Fintech’s leadership through their new growth phase as a public company.”
Triterras Fintech Founder, Chairman and CEO Srinivas Koneru added: “Triterras Fintech’s tech-enabled platform combined with our deep industry experience provides us a first-mover advantage in disrupting the physical trade and trade finance industry. COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated the migration of trade as well as trade finance to our online platform, Kratos, which has experienced a significant increase in customer activity and transaction volumes since the onset of this pandemic. The experience and capital that Netfin adds will enable us to accelerate our growth and more effectively capitalize on our pipeline and broader market opportunity.”


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August 22, 2016 – A full photo album from the opening round of the 2016 Lebanese X30 Karting Championship that took place on RPM Circuit in Mtein on Saturday, August 20.
We define ourselves as the first online Automotive and Motorsports community in the Arab World.
March 8, 2017 – Toyota has revealed a hot version of the Yaris, dubbed Yaris GRMN, at the Geneva Motor Show this week. GRMN stands for “Gazoo...
February 16, 2017 – Ferrari has selected the 2017
February 7, 2017 – The Dodge and SRT brands
January 18, 2017 – BMW has introduced some minor
Vorsteiner decided to debut another
May 17, 2012 – Motor
The fabled Bugatti Veyron has
Renault will make only 50
Here’s video footage of a


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The money raised above the MSRP price from the sale of the GT500 will benefit the Carroll Shelby Children’s Foundation, an organization meant to help children battling life-threatening illnesses and promote the importance of organ and tissue donation.
The sale of the two GT concepts will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a leader in research leading to a cure for Type 1 diabetes. Craig Jackson, Barrett-Jackson CEO appreciated Ford's initiative, as "it's rare for a concept vehicle, especially one as iconic as a Ford Mustang, to be sold to the public.”
This is only the beginning of the anniversary celebrations dedicated to the Mustang. Birmingham, Alabama is the place where, on April the 17th, more than 2,500 enthusiasts are expected to show up and show off their Mustangs.
"We have people coming in from 15 foreign countries, including Australia, Denmark and France. And some of them may be bringing their cars with them," Jim Farley, Ford Group VP of Marketing and Communications said in a release.


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JLR targets growing opt-out market
Jaguar Land Rover sees huge opportunities to grow volume among cash-allowance drivers, with UK managing director, Jeremy Hicks, predicting growing numbers will opt out of company car schemes over the coming years.
Hicks said this was the result of “unparalleled change” to the “old norms” of the sector; with unclear taxation benefits, changes to Vehicle Excise Duty last year and CO2 emission limits for capital allowances changing in April, as well as the “arbitrary” one-band penalty against diesel engines announced during last year’s Budget.
“I think our opportunity comes as people opt out and get given cash for cars,” he explained. “We have strong residual values, a good range line-up and I think we have good opportunities in a changing fleet market.”
Hicks stressed that there’s no underlying change to the company’s fleet strategy. Jaguar Land Rover has invested heavily in the infrastructure to support the two brands’ growing model ranges, broadening its appeal beyond small businesses and a retail-heavy sales mix. New plans are to target larger fleets and leasing companies, where it has traditionally been weaker.
There has also been some limited daily rental volume for Jaguar, aimed at driving awareness, Hicks said: “We’re known but not always considered – the strategy is to get on the shopping list. We’ve a lot more traction in fleet, but for us it’s always about balance; we have a retail strength other brands would die for and they have a fleet strength that we’d like to have a little of. That’s our strategy.”
Hicks’ comments come shortly after fleet consultancy firm, BCF Wessex, told Fleet World that market conditions were beginning to favour a revival of ECO schemes, which can now offer better value for businesses. Maxxia Group, meanwhile, said this week that employers should be cautious about the risks of cutting drivers off from company car schemes.


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FROM Mike Ramsey
Chinese Investing in Electric Cars Chinese investors and Tesla alumni have formed a new electric car manufacturing company called Faraday Future. They plan to sell luxury electric vehicles as soon as 2017. But Faraday is not the only e-car company in California with Chinese backing. Can they take on Tesla?
Ford Predicts $1 Billion in European Losses The Ford Motor Company has been one of the success stories amid America’s era of economic troubles, the auto maker that didn’t require a bailout. Now, Ford’s second-quarter profits are off 57%—down to 1billion dollars as compared to 2.4 billion a year ago.
Symbols of protest, lighting up EDM festivals The Women's March made a huge impact, in part because of its widely worn pink knitted "pussyhat." Does the March for Science need its own unifying symbol? Lighting designer Steve Lieberman is "the man behind the lights" for the country's leading electronic music festivals and nightclubs. He talks about his early experiences with rave culture, and what it takes to spark the excitement of today's EDM fans.
Michael Flynn ensnared in foreign payments scandal Congressman Elijah Cummings has released documents showing that President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn was warned not to accept foreign government payments in 2014. Flynn still took a $45,000 speaking fee in 2015 from the Kremlin-backed news network RT.
In 'Free Fire,' Ben Wheatley wants to "meet the audience halfway" British filmmaker Ben Wheatley has built up a cult following with his hyper-violent, darkly funny movies. His newest film Free Fire is an action comedy starring Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, and a whole lot of guns. The movie has the broadest commercial appeal of any of his work to date, but it's still a Ben Wheatley film, which means, spoiler alert...a lot of people die.


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Righthaven, a copyright-troll law firm that failed in its attempt to make money for newspapers by suing readers for sharing stories online, was dealt a death blow on Tuesday by a federal judge who ord
Two Philadelphia-based companies were ordered to pay a $1.5 million fine and forfeit $4.9 million Monday after pleading guilty to money laundering last year.
The introduction of new website suffixes (known as new top-level domains) such as .ibm, .afl, .law, and .shop is set to cause a shake-up in search engine land.
Company asks for FacebookDeveloper.com domain to be transferred to it.
Facebook has filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum about the domain name FacebookDeveloper.com.
The shadow of rogue Internet service providers (ISPs) and registrars has long loomed over discussions of Web security -- a fact underscored by the recent controversy involving Internet.bs, a domain na
Computer hackers have penetrated the database of Australia's biggest internet domain name auction house, possibly accessing client home addresses and encrypted credit card numbers.
The Federal Trade Commission in a Friday letter urged the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to rethink its plan to allow for new domain-name endings, warning that the current
MGM Resorts International has filed lawsuits against two companies and four individuals it accuses of trademark infringement by registering domain names for poker websites that use the names of severa
So your startup needs a name.


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Hotelogix will be at the 14th edition of TTE London at stand HT 164, to mark the release of their mobile hotel management PMS on the world’s largest app store from February 22-23.
March 2 - March 3
March 6 - March 7
HSMAI Region Europe and Travel Industry Club Germany (TIC) to co-host the pre-ITB event at the Sofitel Berlin Kurfürstendamm
March 7 @ 12:00 am - 5:00 pm


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Tech companies are applying business restrictions against Russia in compliance with sanctions imposed against the country following its invasion of Ukraine. This is by no means an exhaustive list, these are just the heaviest restrictions that have been announced in the past week.
Thank you for tuning into Hashtag Trending. It’s Monday, Feb. 28, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Intel and AMD have stopped exporting their processors to Russia, according to several news outlets. According to Tom’s Hardware, the restrictions are similar to the sanction against Huawei, except that it applies to an entire country. Although AMD and Intel are suspending sales immediately, its impact on the global semiconductor economy may be smaller than one assumes. Russia only purchases just 0.1 per cent of the global chip supply. With a majority of its chips cut off, Russia may need to seek alternatives within the country, but even that may prove difficult as TSMC announced its own business restrictions against Russia.
Over the weekend, Google has cut ad revenues for RT, Russia’s state-owned media YouTube channel. Google cited “extraordinary circumstances” as it paused monetization for RT and other channels affiliated with the recent sanction against Russia. YouTube has also tweaked its algorithm so that videos from these outlets will appear less often, but not completely removed. Additionally, Reuters reported that Russian media will not be able to buy ads through Google Tools or place ads on Google services. Google Pay has also stopped working in the country.
Apple is also imposed restrictions against Russia by disabling Apple Pay in the country. This change is an extension of the sanctions against Russian banks. As a result, U.S.-based payment systems will no longer accept any cards issued by sanctioned banks, which include Apple Pay and Google Pay. The restrictions apply even if the customer is abroad. Companies registered in countries that comply with the sanctions will also reject Russian credit cards.
Now for something a bit different. The self-proclaimed vigilante hacking collective Annonymous has apparently hacked the Russian State TV to broadcast news on the war in Ukraine. A 44-second video clip posted on Reddit appears to show the detrimental effects of war on Ukrainians on a Russian TV broadcast. Corroborating Tweets also reports that the disruption affected all Russian TV stations, although the claim wasn’t confirmed. The group also claimed that it had breached Russia’s Ministry of Defense, releasing a list of personal information supposedly belonging to high-ranking members of the ministry.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.


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It’s been a busy week filled with loads of Google news and rumors, a new version of Swiftkey and a some good news about Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3. Check out our round up below of all the best Android news you may have missed this past week.
Motorola has released an update for its Touchless Control app. The update allows users to use more Google Now commands without unlocking their device, and the ability to unlock the device by saying the pin.
According to the Korean news website ETNews, Samsung has announced that they’re going to merge their mobile devices division with their camera division. The exact details about the merger aren’t available, other than a sentence that says the company’s goal is to “integrate the technical know-how of the two business divisions into competency for differentiating our smartphones.”
If you bought a Nexus 5 the second it was available to order, there’s a high probability you were upset with what the FedEx man dropped off at your door. The camera was bad, the speaker wasn’t very loud, and the buttons rattled. Now we all know the camera was sort of kind of fixed with Android 4.4.1 and 4.4.2, but what about the other problems? According to Engadget, they’ve now been solved. One of their readers even sent them a photo of the new Nexus 5 compared to the old one.
At the beginning of this month, the SwiftKey team rolled out a new beta that introduced a simpler and unified installer. Today, the team has released another beta version of their popular keyboard adding two of the most requested features from its users – emoji support and dedicated number row!
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is an amazing smartphone with a gorgeous 5.7 inch 1080p AMOLED panel, the fastest Snapdragon 800 out there, and 3 GB of RAM, but it’s also insanely expensive. Depending on where you live, it can cost anything from $300 with a two year contract to $1,000 after tax. This is why Samsung is planning a “Lite” version of the Note 3, which according to the Korean news site ETNews, has already entered the mass production stage.
Ever since Google launched their Facebook clone, Google+, they’ve slowly been integrating it into all their services. YouTube, Android, Google Docs Drive, nothing can escape the Google+ reign of terror. The social network’s latest victim is Android’s photo gallery application. If you pick up either of the two new Google Play Edition devices that were announced yesterday, you’ll notice that the only way to view the photos you’ve taken is to open the Google+ Photos application.
ASUS is sending members of the press an invitation to an event scheduled to take place on January 6th in Las Vegas. The text on the invitation reads “IN SEARCH OF INCREDIBLE”. What exactly could the company be planning? This is ASUS we’re talking about here, the question is what are they not planning? At the company’s Computex press event during the summer, they announced what felt like a twenty different devices. Some tablets, some phones, some phone-tablets, some tablet-phones, and a bunch of laptop-tablet-submarine hybrids. So what’s next?
Nokia’s Android handset was revealed in an image leaked by evleaks last month, but details on the phone were sparse. Thanks to a report by The Verge, we have new information that sheds some light on this mystery device from the Finnish handset maker.
Earlier today, LG inadvertently leaked details on a Google Play edition of its G Pad 8.3 tablet. Google followed this leak with an official confirmation that reveals the details on this tablet device. Google also used this occasion to announce the Play edition version of Sony’s Z ultra phone.
When Google announced the Chromecast back in August of this year, the usability and extremely low price tag of the device attracted a lot of impulse buyers. For 35$, Google allowed Chromecast users to cast Netflix or Hulu Plus content to their TV with their Android device acting as a media remote.
Google killed the hardware menu button with the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. However, OEMs like Samsung and LG have been reluctant in killing the button and till this day provide a hardware menu key on their devices, instead of the much more useful multitasking key.
Samsung’s high end smartphones have used AMOLED screens since the very first Galaxy S rolled off the assembly line a little over three years ago. You’d think that the company would want to keep on using AMOLED displays as a way to differentiate their phones from the competition, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. According to the Korean publication ETNews, Samsung is thinking about going LCD for the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy Note 4 because it would save them a substantial amount of money.
Samsung has just announced, via their Korean corporate blog, that sales of the Galaxy Note 3 have just hit 10 million units. Considering that the phone launched on September 25th, that’s quite impressive for a device many people like to point and laugh at for being too big. Now to put this 10 million figure into some perspective, it took four months for the Note II and nine months for the first Note to hit the same milestone.
Assuming you have a decent job, buying a smartphone with bleeding edge hardware specifications is easy. But no matter how much money you have, buying a flagship Android phone that’s easy to use in one hand is simply impossible … at least it will be for the next 10 days. Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo has finally announced when the 4.3 inch Sony Xperia Z1F is going to launch: December 19th.
There are two rumors circulating around the internet about the next Nexus device from Google. One says it’ll be an 8 inch tablet that’s a variant of the LG G Pad 8.3. Another says it’ll be the successor to the Nexus 10. Personally, I think it’ll be the latter based on an earlier leak from a disgruntled Telefonica employee. Said employee leaked a photo, a price, and a model number: LG-V510. During the weekend, the man behind @evleaks tweeted an image of some XML markup that seemingly confirms the LG-V510 is indeed a Nexus, and that there will be a 16 GB variant.


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Research from Roy Morgan shows 15.9 million Australians aged 14-plus (75.3 per cent) ate take away food in an average four weeks from fast food outlets such as McDonald’s, KFC, Hungry Jack’s, Domino’s Pizza or from the local fish and chips shop, pizza shop or convenience store in 2020.
This was a significant increase on 2019, when there were 13.3 million (63.7 per cent) customers of fast food outlets, as Australians spent a considerable amount of time at home during nationwide lockdowns last year and made use of food-ordering services such as Uber Eats, Menulog, HelloFresh, Deliveroo and DoorDash.
There are now 10 quick service restaurants with at least one million Australian customers buying food in an average four weeks with old favourite McDonald’s again the leading restaurant with over 8.1 million.
In clear second place is KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) with over 6.8 million customers while third place is a close contest between burger franchise Hungry Jack’s (4.2 million) and Domino’s Pizza (4.1 million).
Filling out the top five is sandwich and salad outlet Subway with 3.2 million customers followed by chicken-based Red Rooster with over 2.1 million customers.
There are four outlets with just over 1 million customers led by flame-grilled chicken outlet Nando’s on almost 1.3 million, the Australian-owned gourmet burger outlet Grill’d on over 1.1 million and the Australian-owned Mexican fast food outlet Guzman y Gomez and Pizza Hut both on around 1 million customers.
Top 10 Quick Service Restaurants: Number of Australians aged 14+ who ate at or had take away in an average four weeks – in 2020
Almost one-in-five Australians eat fast food 10+ times in an average four weeks
A small minority of fewer than one-in-five Australians are ‘big fans’ of quick service restaurants with 3.7 million Australians (17.6 per cent) eating from these outlets 10 or more times in an average four weeks.
There are far more less frequent customers to these outlets including the 4.5 million Australians (21.5 per cent) who eat from these outlets from 5-9 times in an average four weeks and the 7.6 million Australians (36.1 per cent) who only eat from these outlets from 1-4 times in an average four weeks.
On average Australians make 4.8 visits to quick service restaurants in an average four weeks.
Millennials are the biggest customer group for the top 3 – McDonald’s, KFC & Hungry Jack’s
Analysing the leading quick service restaurants by generation shows that Millennials, born from 1976-1990 and now aged from 30-45 years old, are the biggest customers of all three of the leading fast food outlets – McDonald’s, KFC and Hungry Jack’s – narrowly ahead of the younger Generation Z.
Nearly 2.5 million Millennials are McDonald’s customers in an average four weeks, over 2.1 million choose KFC and Hungry Jack’s has 1.3 million. In comparison, McDonald’s has almost as many Generation Z customers while there are 2 million Generation Z customers and 1.3 million for Hungry Jack’s.
Older generations are less frequent customers of fast food outlets, but McDonald’s remains the leading choice for Generation X, Baby Boomers and Pre-Boomers ahead of KFC and Hungry Jack’s.
Top 3 Quick Service Restaurants eat at or have take away in an average four weeks by Generation
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says fast food outlets were one of the beneficiaries of the last year as Australians stuck at home turned to food delivery services to order their favourite meals from McDonald’s, KFC, Hungry Jack’s, Domino’s Pizza and other outlets.
Levine commented: “The latest Roy Morgan data shows over three-quarters of Australians aged 14+, 15.9 million, ate take away food from fast food outlets in an average four weeks during 2020, up from 13.3 million (63.7%) in 2019 before anyone had heard of COVID-19.
“This represents significant growth on a year earlier but the trend of increasing patronage at fast food outlets has been consistent over the last few years. The impact of COVID-19 and keeping people at home for extended periods last year led to increasing usage of food-ordering services such as Uber Eats, Menulog, HelloFresh, Deliveroo and DoorDash.
“However, although these apps are ‘popular’ they are not the whole story as customer growth at leading fast food outlets such as McDonald’s, KFC, Hungry Jack’s and Domino’s Pizza has been consistent over the last few years.
“McDonald’s has been the market leader throughout this time and continues to hold its advantage with the ‘Golden Arches’ having over 8.1 million customers during 2020 well ahead of the second-placed Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) with 6.8 million. Also popular are Hungry Jack’s and Domino’s Pizza which both have over 4 million customers – around 20% of Australia’s population.
“The two youngest outlets within the top ten are the Australian-owned outlets Grill’d and Guzman y Gomez which were both founded fewer than 20 years ago. For the first time both the gourmet burger focused Grill’d and the Mexican-food focused Guzman y Gomes have over one million customers in an average four weeks.
“Importantly for these outlets is attracting and retaining repeat customers who may return multiple times over a short period. The data shows that 3.7 million Australians (17.6 per cent) eat 10 or more times from quick service restaurants in an average four weeks, or at least twice a week.
“There is considerable scope for quick service restaurants who can identify who these people are and find ways to increase engagement to add value to their offering through customer loyalty programs that reward frequent visits.”
In a major joint investigation with News Corp Australia, Sky News Australia will blow the lid on the escalating cocaine war in an unmissable report, Australia’s Cocaine Crisis, this Sunday at 7:30pm AEST. Following last week’s Australian Federal Police-led sting of the century Operation Ironside, charging more than one hundred organised crime members, Sky News anchor […]
WhatsApp has reaffirmed its commitment to user privacy in a new global campaign, following controversial policy changes earlier this year. The Facebook-owned messaging platform revealed earlier this year it would be sharing certain data with Facebook as a condition of use, with the potential for this data to be used for targeted ads. The changes […]
Clipboard, a free professional networking platform for the hospitality industry, has announced it will seek to raise its next round of funding via equity crowdfunding platform Birchal. This will power its vision to transform the way the fragmented hospitality industry connects, shares experiences, markets and recruits. With a growing member database of over 24,000 hospitality […]
BIG W has joined forces with Verizon Media’s branded content division, RYOT Studio, to give Aussies a new way to shop Australia’s favourite annual toy sale, Toy Mania, using augmented reality (AR). In a first for BIG W, customers can scan a WebAR code to ‘place’ select outdoor toys from the Toy Mania sale virtually […]
Production of a reality TV show in the US has been halted indefinitely after an outbreak of “explosive diarrhoea” occurred on set. The new show is called Ultimate Slip ‘N Slide and is a competitive adult version based on the famous kid’s backyard summer sliding game. Filming had been taking place at a ranch in […]
The #SeeingRed campaign by Hey Girls UK uses discordance to its advantage, conveying the frustration and disempowerment of period poverty. Hey Girls UK are a period brand seeking to end period poverty in the UK, selling period underwear, cups, pads, and tampons. They run on a ‘Buy One, Give One’ scheme, where for every product […]
An upcoming film about the terrorist attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, has been widely criticised for promoting a ‘white saviour’ narrative. Members of the Muslim community have also said it is “too soon” to fictionalise the shooting, which happened in 2019. White supremacist Brenton Tarrant murdered 51 worshippers at Al Noor Mosque, […]
Isentia has announced a takeover offer from Access Intelligence, which is subject to shareholder approval. Under the offer, Isentia shareholders will receive $0.175 per share in cash; this implies an Enterprise value of $67 million. Access Intelligence is a technology-led company delivering SaaS products that address the fundamental business needs of customers in the PR, […]
CHEP Tech, CHEP’s technology offering, has strengthened its Sydney team with new hires, including ex-Isobar engineering leaders, Tim Chapman and Kirill Frolov, alongside the promotion of Jacinta Karras to Head of Tech Programs and Charlotte Bruton’s role expansion from Head of Mixed Reality to Head of Innovation Strategy. Mark Gretton, chief technology officer of CHEP […]
After it was initially delayed, a Four Corners episode on QAnon, and a link between the conspiracy and PM Scott Morrison, aired last night. The ep – which had 722,000 viewers, as per OzTAM’s metro data – interviewed the family of Australian QAnon followed Tim Stewart. Stewart is a family friend of Morrison, who has publically […]
With the on-time deadline right around the corner, now is the time to submit your entry for B&T’s newest awards program, Best of the Best. On-time entries for Best of the Best will be accepted until 5pm (AEST) on Friday 25 June. And, while you can submit entries after this date for another week, it’s definitely best […]
New data, compiled by Deloitte and released by industry body Commercial Radio Australia, shows a rebound in radio advertising. According to the data, commercial radio advertising revenue for metropolitan stations jumped by 72.6 per cent in the month of May to reach $59.605 million from $34.534 million a year ago. The rise reflects a strong […]
Swedish bank Nordax has created a tool to urge people to buy less online – and to make smoothies instead. How we shop online is constantly evolving, with new ways to pay and get items delivered. Now, with a global pandemic keeping everyone bored at home, online shopping has reached new heights. Nordax Bank, a […]
It might still be June, but the deadline for entries into this year’s B&T awards is fast approaching (they’re due Monday 19 July at 5 PM, in case you were wondering). This year we’re helping you like never before with our new series, ‘How To Win A B&T Award’, where we speak with a host of judges, […]


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NEW YORK, March 10 Leon Cooperman, chief
executive of hedge fund Omega Advisors, said Monday that he
agreed with activist investor Carl Icahn's push for eBay Inc
to spin off PayPal.
"I give Carl a lot of credit for taking the time and showing
the energy, and in this case, we happen to agree with him,"
Cooperman, an eBay shareholder, told CNBC television. "I think
they should spin out a portion of PayPal," he added.
Icahn, who owns just over 2 percent of the e-commerce
company, has been pressuring eBay for weeks to spin off its
PayPal online payments business. The billionaire investor has
repeatedly accused eBay of poor corporate governance.
Cooperman also said that the U.S. stock market was fairly
valued at its current levels and would be surprised if it


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The end drew closer yesterday for General Motors with an ironic twist – the very people who reap its generous perks are likely to wreck the firm.
Analysts say GM would be forced to close its factories as early as next week if a powder-keg labor dispute chokes off supply lines to assembly plants.
Union workers at bankrupt Delphi Corp. – GM’s main parts supplier – vowed yesterday to strike if their richly financed labor deals are stripped away by a bankruptcy court attempting to rescue Delphi.
Without parts to ship completed vehicles to dealers, GM would burn through more than $1 billion a week, vaporizing its cash reserve and forcing it into bankruptcy, analysts said.
The standoff crisis escalated late yesterday after lawyers for Delphi urged a bankruptcy judge to void labor contracts and reject unprofitable supplier deals with GM – which lawyers say is the only way for Delphi to solve its mess.
Delphi and GM, which previously owned Delphi, together owe unionized workers as much as $12 billion in pension benefits, among the most generous in industrial America.
A United Auto Workers union official said it would be “impossible to avoid a long strike” if the court rejects its Delphi contracts. Wall Street was startled by the showdown, which could trigger a walkout over the weekend.
“That’s scary – the fact that they are saying there is no reason to even negotiate now,” said analyst Kevin Tynan of Argus Research. “That increases the likelihood of a strike considerably.”
“If it’s a long, drawn-out strike, GM would face an unsustainable cash burn rate that would end up in bankruptcy,” he said.
The world’s largest automaker lost $10.6 billion in 2005 as it struggled to pay high labor and materials costs while losing huge shares of its sales to Toyota and other foreign automakers.
A 1998 Delphi strike halted about 95 percent of GM’s North American operations for nearly two months.
GM’s Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said he’s opposed to Delphi’s attempt to strip away labor contacts, and expects to reach a deal with unions to avoid a shutdown.
Delphi CEO Steve Miller said: “We need GM to cover a greater portion of the costs of manufacturing products for GM.”


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LONG GROVE, Iowa-- For the first time in 15 years, Pride of the Wapsi will not be growing strawberries; they're growing sunflowers instead.
It's a new day at this Iowa farm, and it's a sunny one.
After months of tending the fields. this place is ready for their first of its kind crop debut.
"We think it's an opportunity for families to see something they normally don't see in Iowa. We see fields of gold tassels but not gold flowers," says Pride of the Wapsi co-owner Pat Dierickx.
On the farm, feast your eyes on two acres filled with 40,000 sun-seeking beauties. There are six different kinds, all with different shapes, sizes, and colors.
Starting opening day people can come to the farm, take in the views, and take some fresh flowers home.
"Pick a sunflower, have a glass of wine, spend the afternoon with us," says Dierickx.
Dierickx says planting these was a change that makes sense for the farm and the customers.
"When we first started at Pride of the Wapsi, we did strawberries, sweet corn and a fall festival of pumpkins," says Dierickx.
For the past 15 years, picking strawberries was a staple here at the farm. But growing them wasn't always easy.
"It is a very labor extensive and expensive project to do," says Dierickx.
And Dierickx says the way visitors spend time on the farm is different.
"Families would come out and pick 100, 150, 200 pounds of strawberries. That culture is changed," says Dierickx.
He says when people come to the farm, they want an experience. They'll come in with their families, enjoy the flowers, snap a picture and post it to social media.
With a new venture on the horizon, the future here is as bright as the newly grown petals.
Sunflower Days opens July 20-21 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and then again the following weekend.
Visitors can also come out during weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
And photographers can call and reserve private plots of flowers to shoot photo sessions in the evenings.


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Steve Maarbani stories
Pitch VC and VentureCrowd to transform startup funding
Digital investment platform for alternative assets, VentureCrowd and Pitch VC, have announced a new venture to transform startup fund management in Australia.
VentureCrowd partners with Singapore venture studio, expands into Southeast Asia
VentureCrowd has entered into a joint venture with Singapore-headquartered venture studio, Lightworks Ventures to expand into Southeast Asia.
VentureCrowd and MakerX collaborate on new WealthTech platform
Vest is a blockchain-based wealth technology platform where syndicate communities can view niche deal flow, invest in deals and contribute to the community.


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Shortages in CO2 production in New Zealand are hitting breweries in the country, with some being forced to reduce or cease production due to a lack of supply of the gas.
The shortages date back to early 2022 when Marsden Point, New Zealand’s only onshore oil refinery shut down.
However, the problem has been exacerbated by shutdowns at a plant in Taranaki, which is the country’s only dedicated food-grade CO2 production facility.
The Kapuni plant – run by Todd Energy – had several scheduled maintenance shutdowns last year but was also closed before Christmas in a safety scare.
As a result, CO2 in the country is being rationed, with priority being given to critical medical, safety and water customers, according to industrial gas producer BOC.
In an email to its customers, the firm, which is based in Sydney, reportedly said it was “working collaboratively with suppliers, customers and other industry stakeholders to manage the CO2 supply situation”.
Due to the shortages, CO2 suppliers in the country have had no choice but to turn to alternatives to source their gas, according to Dylan Firth, the executive director of the New Zealand Brewers Association.
“Many breweries have been relying on more expensive and time-delayed imported CO2 and where possible using other gasses such as Nitrogen,” Firth told Just Drinks.
“The larger breweries have means to capture CO2 from the fermentation process but not all their needs,” he continued. “We don’t have an expected date for reopening as yet so there is real concern as to the supply for many breweries.
“Long term, it seems domestic supply is not sustainable at these levels and we expect that reliance on imported CO2 will continue. This will increase the overall cost of production.”
Jos Ruffell, the founder of Wellington’s Garage Project brewery, told Just Drinks his own CO2 provider had cut their contract in half, and the company’s supplies could drop to 30% of normal levels.
“We’re now 100% reliant on imported bulk CO2 from Thailand,” he said. “There simply isn’t enough to go around for the whole country.
“We’re doing what we can to substitute CO2 for nitrogen where we can and, like other breweries, we’ve invested in capture recovery technology. Despite that, we are still having moments where we can’t package in a certain week, for lack of CO2.”
Ruffell added the cost of CO2 per kg to his brewery had tripled since last year.
CO2 shortages and price increases have been plaguing beverage manufacturers worldwide in the last twelve months.
In September, Germany’s Brewing Association said brewers were cutting production in the face of reduced supply, while UK brewers have faced hikes of more than 500% in the Energy & Environment Surcharge they pay on their CO2 purchases.


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- Nov 9, 2015
All iPhone 8 rumors so far have shown off the color scheme trinity - White, Black and Gold - but now a new video shows a unit painted in a bold red color. This won't be the first red iPhone but it will be the first time Apple offers a red unit from the get go. This video was sent to us by a tipster who says it was shot Guangzhou in what appears to be a showroom (or perhaps a QA facility). Interestingly, the iPhone 8 appears more burgundy and the iPhone 7 (7s?) behind it is a brighter red. And the gold color continues to not look like the precious metal, but closer to...


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MUMBAI: India Ratings and Research on Friday said textile
companies are likely to see a 20-25 per cent decline in their topline this fiscal owing to muted domestic demand and sub-par exports in the April-June quarter due to COVID-19 related disruptions. Ind-Ra in a report said coronavirus
related disruptions weighed on the textitle sector which has been facing multiple headwinds in form of flattening demand from key exporting countries and increasing competition from neighbouring countries like Bangladesh
Textile companies across the value chain could witness a topline contraction of 20-25 per cent on a year-on-year basis in FY21, on back of a muted domestic demand and sub-par exports during 1QFY21 due to COVID-19 related disruptions, Ind-Ra said in a report.
The COVID-19 related demand disruptions could substantially impact companies with weaker balance sheets and limited scale, should the recovery stretch beyond one quarter, the report said adding that in such a situation there might be consolidation within sub-segments such as yarn producers, spinning and dyeing.
The report said China's position as the largest exporter to the US may be challenged in the long-run, but will remain intact in the short run, given its strengths of scale, product integrity, price points and turnaround time.
India exported USD 28.36 billion worth of textiles from April 2019 till January 2020.
Majority of domestic companies are facing massive order cancellations from the US and Europe, along with factory shutdowns and raw material shortage.
Furthermore, full-fledged resumptions of exports would mainly depend on the containment of pandemic in key export geographies, the report said.
The US and Europe while being the worst hit geographies are also India's major export markets for textile products, hence export recovery could take longer, especially given the discretionary nature of these products.
Meanwhile, Ind-Ra said the liquidity score for FY21 for most issuers remains resilient to demand shocks, backed by the availability of cash reserves and unutilised bank limits.
A weak rupee is a silver lining in the current situation, it added.
Further, Ind-Ra expects the aggregate working capital requirement to remain limited, as a decline in commodity prices is likely to counter the incremental requirements of an elongated receivable cycle and higher inventory volumes.
However, the material relief especially to the MSME units in the sectors would depend on the domestic as well as export recovery, complemented with a focused government aid, Ind-Ra added.


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How to Play the Yahoo! Acquisition Rumors
March 13, 2013
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Brian is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
Far too often retail investors hurry and buy a stock when whispers of an acquisition occur, but then return losses when the acquisition never materializes or when the buyout price is less than investors expect (i.e., Clearwire). Now, investors are looking to another high-profile company that is in the market to acquire, but the question remains, who will Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) acquire and should investors chase the speculation?
What’s Going On?
Back on March 7, a Yahoo executive stated that the company is working on two “significant” acquisitions. Almost immediately shares of OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN) and Yelp (NYSE: YELP) responded to the rumors and traded higher. While mobile advertising company Millennial Media (NYSE: MM) did not trade higher, it was also at the center of speculation. Then, on Monday, shares of Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) popped higher by 10% when Wunderlich’s Blake Harper said that he views Zynga as a potential buyout target.
Do you Want to Play Roulette?
Each of the four companies make sense as a potential acquisition for Yahoo! Zynga could strengthen the company’s social media exposure, and could be acquired relatively cheap compared to the valuations of some social media companies.
Millennial Media offers mobile advertising, and with mobile growing so rapidly, such an acquisition could be beneficial for a company that relies on revenue from advertising. Then, there are the food review sites Yelp and OpenTable, both of which would be a counter to Google’s recent acquisition of Zagat. It was reported that back in 2009 Yahoo actually made a $750 million offer to acquire Yelp, and that Yahoo also pitched bankers of OpenTable as early as last year, therefore both seem possible.
Right now, we have four companies and two potential acquisitions. If you consider a 50% chance of investing in two of the four then your chances of returning a large pop are about equal to that of choosing red or black at a roulette table. The problem is that social media expands every day, and when you consider the number of promising public companies, your chances of successfully purchasing prior to an acquisition is more like choosing a number on a roulette table. Basically, it’s a risky business.
Hold on Just a Minute
Those who might feel compelled to invest in any of these four companies on the possibility of a Yahoo acquisition also need to consider the likelihood of Yahoo looking at other companies. Consider the fact that CEO Marissa Mayer was at Google for 13 years, most of her career, and held a number of top leadership positions. Most recently, prior to taking the CEO position at Yahoo, she was the Vice President of Local, Maps, Location Services. Therefore, she was part of several big acquisitions, but strangely enough, only one of the larger acquisitions (over $100 million) was a public company. Click here to see notable Google acquisitions since 2005.
If we look at the acquisition habits of internet-based companies, most prefer acquisitions of private companies. The primary reason is because internet-based companies are very expensive to acquire because of market valuations. For example, OpenTable trades with a price/sales ratio of 8.88 and saw 15.6% sales growth its last quarter. Therefore, despite the fact that Yahoo could integrate the business on a much larger scale, and grow it faster, it would take many years to ever pay off. For example, if Yahoo acquired OpenTable for a 50% premium, around $2.1 billion, and could maintain top-line growth of 20%, and profit margins of 15%, it would take almost 15 years for the OpenTable acquisition to return a profit from net income. Then, you have to worry if the business model can sustain itself in the ever-changing social media space.
A couple months ago, I had a book published, Taking Charge With Value Investing (McGraw-Hill, 2013), and my goal of writing the book was to use my specialty and to explore market psyche, and to explain how the market behaves and how to capitalize on illogical trends and outlooks to return gains. In the book I show that one of the greatest opportunities in the market is when acquisition rumors begin, because very rarely do they ever materialize or appreciate to the expected price. Therefore, the natural behavior of retail investors is to buy in hopes of quick gains, but shorting on acquisition rumors has been the best trade for the last five years.
I might add that I’m not saying none of the four companies above will be acquired. However, when it really comes down to it, companies and CEOs such as Yahoo and Marissa Mayer are smart, and realize the length of time that it takes for a high-profile internet-based acquisition to pay off in terms of profit. They also know that in social media, only a handful of companies will last longer than 15 years, and most companies learned from the dot-com debacle of 2000.
With that being said, I think it is very unwise to invest in one of the four companies above on the prospects of a potential acquisition. If you believe in the long-term fundamental prospects and believe one is priced attractively to the market, then invest. But more than likely, Yahoo will continue the trend of purchasing private companies, and there will be a number of investors upset with their lack of return, and their ultimate loss.


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SAN JOSE, CALIF. -- The countdown for a portable Macintosh has begun. According to John Sculley, Apple Computer Inc.'s chief executive officer, the Cupertino personal computer maker is determined to introduce a Mac lap-top. The only question is when.
"If we could bring a product out that has the resolution and the power of our desk-top Macintoshes, there would obviously be a lot of interest," Sculley said. "The only thing that has held us up is that we won't compromise on quality. We avoided going to the low-end product. We said we'd wait until the technology is good enough to make the high-end."
Is the technology good enough now? "It's getting closer, but not close enough," Sculley said.
Despite Sculley's caution, some industry observers believe Apple, which already has completed more than a dozen prototype portables in its labs, will introduce a lap-top in mid-1988.
"There's no question that the time is ripe for Apple to bring out a lap-top," said Tim Bajarin, executive vice president at Creative Strategies Research.
Others aren't so sure. "I don't see the demand being large enough to interest Apple right now," said Stephen Hull, president of Dynamac Computer Products Inc. of Golden, Colo.
Dynamac has been selling a portable Mac for the past six months using two different flat-panel screens. Apple has given the company permission to buy Macintosh computers, rip them apart and outfit them with flat-panel screens and other components needed for a lap-top. Dynamac sells an 18-pound briefcase-size Mac with a 40-megabyte hard drive and 4 megabytes of internal memory for about $8,000.
Hull thinks that Apple will sell its own portable someday but that the biggest stumbling block is finding an adequate screen.
The Macintosh requires a higher-resolution screen than the many portables compatible with IBM's computers. PC-type portables use a liquid crystal display, or LCD, enhanced with backlighting and a technical trick that "supertwists" the molecules of the display to make characters easier to read.
"The weak link in the technology is the display," said Mark Eppley, president of Traveling Software of Bothell, Wash., which writes software for lap-top computers.
Proven approaches using liquid crystal or electroluminescence, called EL, are either too expensive or offer poor resolution.
Apple's probable choice is an active-matrix screen that offers a picture superior to liquid-crystal at a lower price than EL.


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As companies from Boeing and Uber to Lilium work to develop flying taxis, Bosch wants to make the sensors they'll require more accessible. The company says conventional aerospace technology is too expensive and bulky to use in autonomous flying vehicles. So, today, Bosch announced a plug-and-play sensor box that adapts automotive industry sensors for use in flight.
Bosch sees its box as a universal control unit. The package includes dozens of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors, and the company says it will fit in any flying vehicle. While acceleration sensors will measure the aircraft's movement, yaw-rate sensors can measure its angle of attack. Magnetic field sensors will gauge its compass heading, and pressure sensors will use barometric pressure to calculate altitude and vehicle speed.
According to Bosch, the box is a fraction of the cost compared to current aerospace sensors -- though the company didn't reveal a price. And while it hasn't disclose any flying taxi partners, in a press release, Bosch said, "we aim to make civil aviation with flying taxis affordable for a wide range of providers."
A few years ago, Bosch teamed up with Daimler to create self-driving taxis in San Jose, and the company's technology has helped autonomous cars predict road conditions. We might guess that some of that work informed these sensors. Whether companies adopted the Bosch box or not, it's likely self-driving vehicle technology will carry over into flying taxis.


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On April 12 at the Summit of the Americas, US president Barack Obama publicly spoke with Cuban president Raul Castro about ending the tension between the two countries. This marks the first time Cuba has participated in the summit and hopefully marks the beginning of freer exchange and travel between the two countries. Obama had previously called the US embargo against Cuba “outdated” and expressed interest in normalizing relations.
Such a change should be welcomed. The embargo which began in 1960 has completely failed in its stated purpose of ending the Castro regime — which is clearly still in power. Embargoes tend to punish the general population for the actions of their rulers, and in the process weaken domestic opposition to said rulers. This is not to mentioned the lost opportunities for Americans wishing to do business with Cubans. The US International Trade Commission once estimated that the embargo costs American business $1.2 billion per year in lost sales and exports, an amount that has likely grown since. While the Cuban government states that it cost it’s people $685 million annually. These costs contribute to most Americans opposing the embargo.
Furthermore the embargo, and the accompanying sanctions on international companies that trade with Cuba, limits the access to food, clean water and medicine among Cuban people. The shortages have been linked to outbreaks of infectious disease as well as blindness caused by poor nutrition. The people most greatly harmed or impacted by the embargo are Cuba’s poorest residents. The embargo has only made them poorer.
Imposing such penalties on poor Cubans is outright immoral, even if we overlook the losses assumed by American businesses, consumers and tax payers. While the freeing of travel and exchange should be fully supported, this should not be mistaken for an endorsement of any deal negotiated between the two countries. The US has a tenancy to negotiate trade deals that unfairly benefit large American corporations at the expense of smaller, often local competitors. This is especially true of deals which protect American patent and copyright claims. These are nothing more than government granted monopolies that limit the ability of people to engage in voluntary exchange. Unlike rule intensive trade deals, genuine free trade would require nothing more than for the governments involved to stop being obstacles to exchange. This is true of all countries. A policy of unilateral free trade would be far more beneficial to ordinary people.
The Cold war has been over for decades, and with it died the chief justification for the embargo. The Soviet Union is gone, and has taken global communism with it. Americans and Cubans should be free to peacefully interact as they please. Tragically this is just one of many cases of governments getting in the way of mutually beneficial interactions. Ultimately we need to build a society based purely on voluntary interaction. In the mean time ending this horrific embargo, as well as the sanctions against firms who trade with Cuba, is a great place to start.
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Cisco’s entry into Second Life came through engineers. They started having serendipitous meetings with major company representatives in Second Life. That lead to a virtual demo space where they can now show off products to consumers.
Can real change come from grassroots? AOL launched Ficlets a couple of weeks ago. It was built in Ruby in two months, it supports OpenID, and it has no AOL branding. And it’s free. That was a project driven by one person.
Rachel brings some reality to it: “It’s very difficult to get anything done in social media without board buy-in.”
Jeanette Gibson of Cisco has a different experience: there are rogue installations everywhere!
Back to Ficlets – someone in the audience asked why the lack of branding. Well, there is branding, but it’s subtle. Enough that people can find it if they want it, but not enough that it’s shoved in people’s faces.
The audience are very concerned about how long it takes corporate structures to accept new tools. It feels like the answer is back in Rachel’s earlier remark. Unless you have board buy-in for really fast decisions and launches, you have problems.
Cisco has not seen many negative comments, but has seen journalists routing around the PR team direct to the bloggers for stories, which is changing the way PR operating. For example, during the Apple vrs Cisco spat, they encouraged senior people to blog in and honest way about what was happening, and got good response for that. In fact, there’s an internal competition for the most popular bloggers and podcasters and it’s proving to be very, very competitive…
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Both the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 could make their debut in September, according to DigiTimes.
The Taiwan-based blog, a frequent purveyor of Apple rumors, says several component suppliers in Apple's supply chain are gearing up to start production on these devices very soon. Citing "industry sources," DigiTimes says the iPad 3 and the iPhone 5 will be announced in September and will go on sale in October.
Although there has been buzz that Apple would launch both a smaller iPhone 4S as well as the iPhone 5, DigiTimes claims Apple will only reveal one model of the smartphone this fall. It also alleges that the iPad 3 was recently added to the production schedule. For both the third-gen iPad and the fifth-gen iPhone, Digitimes says Apple will produce "small volumes in August," only to increase production in September and August.
In the report, DigiTimes names a handful of different component suppliers including Foxconn, which handles assembly; Simplo Technologies and Dynapack International Technology, the firms that manufacture batteries; TPK Holding and Wintek, companies in charge of touchscreen panels; Catcher, which handles the chassias; and Largan Precision, which provides the camera.
While it's been widely rumored that Apple will drop the iPhone 5 this fall, there have been conflicting rumors about the timeline of the launch of the iPad 3. If Apple's habit of sticking to an annual product update cycle is any indication, the third-generation tablet won't launch until next spring. But considering Apple has broken that custom with the iPhone, they may do the same for the next iPad.
DigiTimes didn't give any details as to what could be included in the iPhone 5, but it said the iPad 3 will be thinner, lighter, and have an upgraded display.


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Retailers might be sweating the recovery, but mall operators arefeeling pretty good, particularly when it comes to their luxe venueswhere shoppers are out and spending.
Simon Property Group Inc. —the nation’s largest mall operator with 201 regional malls and premiumoutlet centers — said last week that sales per square foot, occupancyand average rents were all on the rise. The smaller Taubman Centers Inc.had a similar take recently.
David Simon, chairman and chiefexecutive officer of Simon, said his company’s strongest headwind camefrom chains that have missed out on the recovery and will potentiallyclose stores. But shoppers overall are hanging tough.
“Theconsumer, actually, I feel a little bit better about,” Simon said on aconference call with analysts.
Over the 12 months ended June 30,sales per square foot in Simon’s U.S. portfolio rose 9.4 percent to$513, as rents per square foot gained 2.8 percent to $39.70 and theoccupancy rate rose to 93.5 percent from 93.1 percent.
This year,Simon plans to add 37 anchor or big-box stores under a variety ofnameplates, including Carson Pirie Scott, Kohl’s, Marshalls, Target andUlta. The firm also has deals to open Macy’s stores in the Chicago andMilwaukee markets and a Lord & Taylor in the Boston market in 2012and 2013. The real estate firm said Love Culture, Francesca’sCollections, Madewell, Lululemon and Michael Kors have all been growingaggressively.
Simon plans to invest $650 million globally todevelop new centers and update existing locations this year and thenramp up spending to $800 million next year.
But the rush ofdevelopment that fueled the fashion industry’s growth trajectory foryears is nowhere in sight.
“There’s been a list of 50 outletcenters that are in [the] predevelopment stage for several years,” Simonsaid. “We think obviously demand is good, but the manufacturers arevery sensitive to where outlets can be put. And so, we think the marketshould be circumspect to the amount of new outlet development that’sbeing talked about.”
For now, the action is in the high-endsegment, where shoppers undoubtedly have the power to spend.
“Luxury’sperformance is outstanding,” said Robert Taubman, chairman, presidentand ceo of the company that bears his name and operates 26 properties.“Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Dior were all top performers [in thesecond quarter]. Jewelry was our leading category, selling across allprice points.”
Taubman’s sales rose 14.1 percent for the secondquarter, hitting $600 a square foot for the 12 months ended June 30.Average rent per square foot rose 3.9 percent to $45.36 and group’soccupancy rate increased to 88.2 percent from 88 percent a year earlier.
“Idon’t see undue pressure in the retail community,” Taubman said. “Thereis a lot of conversation about cotton prices and labor prices in China.Will they be able to pass on to the consumer those costs and what doesit do to their margins? Luxury tenants are doing really well. They arepassing on price increases. The more discount value opportunity [is]doing great and in the middle, at least in our shopping centers, we aredoing just fine.”
There'll be no rest for those headed to Europe for men's, as Paris just closed the gap with Milan. According to a provisional calendar released by the Chambre Syndicale, Paris Men's Week will now open a day earlier on January 16. See new highlights on the official lineup on WWD.com. #wwdnews #wwdfashion (📷: @kukukuba)
BREAKING: Jonathan Saunders is leaving @DVF. The designer has resigned from his position as chief creative officer of Diane von Furstenberg, the company said in a statement on Friday. At the time of his hire, von Furstenberg said Saunders’ arrival symbolized and facilitated her stepping back from the day-to-day duties that occupy the work of a full-time creative director. The British designer joined DVF in May 2016 and was in charge of all product categories. #wwdnews
For @versace_official’s spring ad campaign, the brand emphasized the archival prints from the spring tribute collection dedicated to the late Gianni Versace. Closing out the show were five of Gianni’s favorite models: Cindy, Naomi, Carla, Helena, and Claudia. Bowing on December 18, the new campaign is yet another tribute to supermodel-dom as the images by Steven Meisel are fronted by @iamnaomicampbell, @cturlington, @gisele and more. #wwdfashion
Four-time Oscar-nominated actress Annette Bening has been waiting 20 years to play Gloria Graham in "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool," which will be released on December 29. The movie about Graham – a Hollywood star known for her controversial relationship with a younger Englishman named Peter Turner – is based off a memoir Turned wrote. "She felt vulnerable to him, because she loved him, she really did love him. And anyone that we really truly are in love with, we re vulnerable to in a very deep way," said Bening. Read our full interview with the modern icon of an actress on WWD.com. #wwdeye (📷: @ninebagatelles; Styled by @cristinaehrlich)
The crisp white button down: a staple that can be dressed up or down and accessorized throughout the decades. Here, on a Art Basel-goer in 2017 on the left and on the iconic Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday” in 1953 on the right. #tbt #wwdfashion (📷: Andrew Morales)
Known for her work with @victoriassecret, 25-year-old model @georgiafowler is raising her profile in Hollywood. Fowler stars in @vincecamuto’s holiday campaign, which launched in partnership with “Pitch Perfect 3.” “Almost every shoot with Vince Camuto, I’ve had to face a fear…It was definitely a challenge. I’m so grateful for it, though. I’ve always wanted to be a pop star, so that was the perfect chance,” Fowler said. Head to WWD.com to read about Fowler’s experience modeling, including at the #VSFashionShow, and her relationship with Nick Jonas. #wwdeye (📷: @jilliansollazzo)
EXCLUSIVE: Huda Kattan just became the first beauty influencer to land a major beauty deal. Kattan's business, @hudabeauty, has received a minority investment from private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners. The brand, which industry sources say is on track to do $200 million in retail sales for 2017, will receive support on product, retail and geographic expansion through the deal. Get all the details on the deal and read @_a_collins' interview with Kattan on WWD.com. Link in bio. (📷: @jgreenery) #wwdbeauty #wwdnews
Peruvian model @juanaburga_official – who is known for walking the runways of @rodarte, @viviennewestwood and @torybuch – is making the move to the big screen with drama “Los Últimos.” The film premiered in Argentina in November and arrives in the U.S. and Europe in 2018. On making the switch from modeling to acting, Burga told WWD: “It’s a completely different thing – a lot of people think it’s similar or try to connect things, especially like getting used to the camera or being looked at all the time or playing these different characrers, but film is a completely different story.” #wwdeye (📷: @jgreenery)
London’s newly opened @designmuseum will look back on the life and work of Azzedine Alaïa in a show that the designer helped to curate before he died of heart failure last month. The retrospective, which Alaïa had worked on with Mark Wilson, chief curator of the @groningermuseum, will look at the impact of his work worldwide. The show, “Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier,” will run from May 10 to October 7. Read more about the exhibit on WWD.com #wwdnews #wwdfashion (📷: @zefashioninsider)


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As people across the country rally against President Donald Trump's stance on immigration, many area restaurants were closed in solidarity with the protesters.
Immigrants around the U.S. stayed home from work and school Thursday to demonstrate how important they are to America's economy and its way of life, and many businesses closed in solidarity, in a nationwide protest called A Day Without Immigrants.
The boycott was aimed squarely at Trump's efforts to crack down on immigration, legal and illegal. Organizers said they expected thousands to participate or otherwise show their support.
Organizers appealed to immigrants from all walks of life to take part, but the effects were felt most strongly in the restaurant industry, which has long been a first step up the economic ladder for newcomers to America with its many jobs for cooks, dishwashers and servers. Expensive restaurants and fast-food joints alike closed across the U.S.
Well-known local chain Anna's Taqueria closed its seven greater Boston locations in Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and Brookline in response to the strike. In a message posted to Twitter, the company stated "Anna's success has been built around our loyal staff, many of whom are immigrants or come from immigrant families. We support our employees and value what they have brought to our Anna's community for 20 years."
Other Cambridge and Somerville eateries like Kendall Square's Aceituna Grill and Inman Square's Muqueca Restaurant also joined in the strike, but by far the most wide-ranging closure was Comella's, the chain of fast-casual Italian eateries with locations from Marblehead to Westwood.
"We will be closed today to support the Day Without Immigrants. We have supported our employees for 28 years who are like family and we will continue to do so," the company posted on Twitter.
Several more restaurants issued statements expressing solidarity with the strikers.
Grendel's Den, in Harvard Square, posted on Twitter that “we want to express solidarity with the national strike, but as a small independent business, closing is not an option."
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.


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New PS3 Firmware Update Prevents Jailbreak For Now
Around a week after the PSGroove was made downloadable and free to the public, Sony has released a mandatory firmware update 3.42 for the PlayStation 3, effectively stopping the jailbreak for now.
Not that this is a surprise, but foregoing the firmware update will prevent access to the PlayStation Network. So, at the moment, if someone wants their console cracked, they’ll have to trade online functionality. Of course, as is the relationship between crackers and companies, Sony will probably be caught in an ongoing tug of war with people insistent on creating jailbreaks for the rest of the console’s lifecycle.
Yes, it’s an overall loss for Sony, but they should at least be proud that the jailbreak took four years to materialize, probably the longest amount of time it ever took a hacker to crack anything made for public use in modern times.


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Dave Birch, 15Mb
Will the rapid digitisation and shift away from cash that we're seeing during COVID-19 be permanent, effectively accelerating the long-term decline of cash?
Members are invited to join our webinar as we explore the impact of the pandemic on the payments industry, led by payments expert David Birch, who will share his global perspectives based on recent work for clients in Europe, North America and Asia.
Dave's analysis will use a simple high level model of financial institutions to look at the impact of the virus and examine some early evidence of longer-term change and suggest some key fintech/regtech areas of opportunity.
In particular Dave will cover eight areas: open banking, liquidity, digital identity, government stimulus, contact-free services, cashlessness, omnichannel access and better fraud protection.