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PlayStation Vita is 15 months into its launch; however, it's the yet-to-be-released PlayStation 4 console that Sony is touting as its "absolute perfect companion."
Speaking to GamesIndustry.Biz, Sony senior vice president of PlayStation brand marketing Guy Longworth states that while sales of the handheld device did not reach the company's initial target, the company expects to create a "long-term sustainable business" for Vita over the coming months and years.
"With Vita, we're only 15 months in to launch and now we think that with PlayStation 4 the opportunity for Vita is to be the absolutely perfect companion to the PS4," he said. "What we're seeing is that once people get it in their hands and buy it, they're buying games and they love it. Now, it's not had as fast a start as we would like, that's common knowledge.
"But we do really believe in that platform and think that is has a significant opportunity. We think there's a number of things that we can do in the coming months and years that will make it a long-term sustainable business."
Despite PS Vita receiving a price cut in Japan, Longworth said Sony is not announcing a North American price cut.
"We're about value, we're trying to offer value," Longworth said. "You saw last night we were in a position we felt the value of the PS4 was very good at $399. With PS Vita we feel that $250 is the right price, and I'm not going to comment on where we might go in the future."
Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida previously confirmed the handheld device would not receive a price drop similar to Japan's.


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A young entrepreneur has had a novel idea to help him grab the attention of recruiters in his quest for a new job.
Carl Casis, 29, opened an online shop yesterday, ShoreditchAir, selling the smog of London for £19.99 a jar.
Offerings are available from Shoreditch, Brixton and Croydon and each comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by the bottler.
Speaking to HuffPostUK, Casis said: "I actually had the idea a few years ago when I started to work around Shoreditch. But when I saw that someone had started selling bottled Devon countryside air, I thought 'damn the ship has sailed' so put it on the back burner."
Casis then decided to up sticks and move to Canada but found it challenging to find a job from London so he revisited the idea.
Carl hopes this venture will help him bag a job in Toronto
He added: "I'm actually moving to Toronto next week and haven't sorted out a job. I really would love to work as a Sales Hacker for Shopify so I thought this would be a great way to get their attention.
"It's a way for me to prove that I have good idea and can do marketing and promotion."
In addition to gaining some help obtaining a job, Casis also hopes to highlight the gentrification of areas across London.
He added: "Those areas, especially Shoreditch, are changing and being gentrified. It's quite a big issue at the moment.
"Most people seem to be clicking on the Brixton air. I think because it's still in the middle of gentrification and they want to have a souvenir some authentic Brixton air with the scent of Caribbean cooking before it just smells of independent coffee shops."
While many people are visiting the website and browsing the air, no one has actually bought any yet.
Casis thinks it's because people are worried that it's an April Fools, saying: "The timing did backfire a little, but it's definitely not a hoax.
— Luisa Sanders (@LuisaMSanders) March 31, 2016
"It started off as a joke, but more than 300 people have put jars in their baskets so hopefully they'll buy it," he added. "It's a fun idea and a great present for your hipster friends. Who wouldn't want some lovely hipster London smog?"
"I didn't expect so many people to hear about it. A number of newspapers have reported about it and ITN want to film me in action bottling the air tomorrow."
The thought of buying smog in a jar has baffled people on social media today.
Some wanted to get in on the action.
For others, the range of air on offer just presented too many options.
Question is; Shoreditch air... am or pm? https://t.co/nDfF8lYGBN
— Greg Cox (@madebygregcox) March 30, 2016
And this Facebooker thought it was something rather sinister.
English air seems to be quite a commodity at the moment. A Devon farmer has made thousands of pounds selling British country air to the Chinese for £80 a bottle.
Speaking to Mail Online in February, Leo De Watts descrubed British air as the 'Louis Vuitton or Gucci' of air to the residents of smoggy China, and said: "When someone bottled water everyone thought it was ridiculous, now you have Evian and Volvic - why not bottle air?"

domain: news


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Daniel Kraft, President and CEO of NewsGator Technologies, wrote an interesting article on Wired about the habits of highly effective social leaders.
To believe you can run a business competitively without incorporating the ideas of social business is like running a factory without automation or running a bank without digital trading systems.
The ROI of social is very simple: Survival!
So how to became a Social Business and what are the habits of highly effective social leaders?
Daniel named 7 very simple and easy to apply habits that help to get the most out of the investment in social business.
- Think People
- Think Business
- Think Technology
- Think Trust
- Don’t Bet the Farm
- Measure It
- Get Started
It is truly an exciting time. For many of us, we try to imagine what life was like during those prior revolutionary periods. Here and now we have that amazing opportunity to be part of such a major change. Knowing the impact these revolutions had before us, the opportunity is ours to recognize this next major shift and help to shape the future of the social workplace.


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Work Abroad Job Opening: General Farm Workers (Almarai – Farming) in Saudi Arabia, posted by Principal/Project: Almarai Company – Farming Division. Jobs 1 – 20 of New Construction worker, laborer almarai farming division jobs in saudi arabia Jobs in Philippines available today on JobStreet – Quality. Almarai is a Saudi-based conglomerate, listed on the Tadawul stock exchange. It specializes in Ten small dairy farms that were scattered across Saudi Arabia were replaced with four large dairy farms in Al Kharj in the central region. . Almarai also received the ISO , across all its operating divisions, ( farming.
|Published (Last):||18 April 2007|
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RiyadhSaudi Arabia. Retrieved from ” https: This helped strengthen Almarai’s presence in the country’s dairy market, but also Pepsi used the acquisition to launch Tropicana orange juice drinks into the Jordanian market. Retrieved 3 October The Al Kharj facility includes dairy and juice processing operations, along with a bakery facility.
The brand name was known throughout Egypt and continued to operate under its name as a subsidiary of the IDJ joint venture. Arab News reported that they would be creating an additional 12, jobs in the country over the next five years. Bythe company controlled 44 percent of the dairy market in the Gulf region.
Almarai Company-Farming Division
Savola owns a quarter of its shares and the rest has been on the market since It held a cheddar cheese product promotion throughout the Middle East to try and increase the number of households that bought the cheese on a regular basis.
This page was last edited on 3 Decemberat Coordinates not on Wikidata Articles containing Arabic-language text Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia.
The company notably partnered with Pepsi Co. This was following the acquisition of Hail Agricultural Development Co. This was according to a poll carried out by the British market research company, YouGov. Archived from the original on 13 November In JuneAlmarai invited a number of representatives from both the International press and also financial leaders to visit their main facility in Saudi Arabialocated in Al Kharj. InAlmarai entered a new phase, transformed from a company with limited liability to a joint stock company.
How mega-dairies thrive in Saudi sands”.
Almarai – Wikipedia
And then raise the capital of the company to 1. The company’s main offices are located in RiyadhSaudi Arabia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Almarai announced in that they would be investing heavily in Saudi Arabia to increase dairy production in the country.
It also has the region’s first infant nutrition factory. The company is now responsible farminh more thancows globally and is the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy company. Between andthe company grew rapidly. Retrieved 19 October The company specializes in dairy and juice products, including plain and flavored ultra-high-temperature UHT milk, flavored yogurt, cheese and a variety of juices.
InAlmarai began to diversify its portfolio by pushing promotions diviison other dairy products and not just milk. Views Read Edit View history.
As part of the Pepsi Co partnership, Almarai also moved into to Jordanian drinks market. In total they acquired around 14, acres.
The likelihood was that Almarai would invest in the country’s dairy market through acquisition. Almarai then set up a number of facilities in regions across Saudi Arabia, which initially helped local farmers produce and distribute milk. It was seen as a positive move in the country, following 3 years of economic turmoil following the revolution in the country.


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As its competitor PepsiCo moves to paperboard beverage carrier systems en masse in North America, certain bottlers in Coca-Cola’s network are in the midst of their own transitions away from plastic rings.
A year after becoming the first operator in the U.S. to adopt Graphic Packaging International’s KeelClip paper-based clip system for cans, Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages reports having transitioned all of its mini cans to the system, or almost 3.1 million cases.
Plastic rings are perhaps most infamous for the havoc they wreak on marine life and beverage brands have been looking for ways to move away from them. PepsiCo announced in August it would begin rolling out paperboard packaging – recyclable wraps and clips, in lieu of plastic rings – on beverage multipacks in the U.S. and Canada for brands including Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Gatorade. PepsiCo said it was “the first beverage company to commit to a North American roll out” of this approach.
The Coca-Cola Co. has its own packaging sustainability goals, including to make all of its packaging recyclable worldwide by 2025. It’s also aiming to reduce its use of virgin plastic from non-renewable sources by a cumulative 3 million metric tons between 2020 and 2025. However, unlike competitors, Coca-Cola’s system in the U.S. consists of more than 60 independently owned bottlers, which manufacture, package, merchandise and distribute final branded beverages to customers and vending partners.
“The Coca-Cola Company works very closely with our bottling partners to make meaningful progress towards our shared sustainability goals, including driving innovation in secondary packaging,” a Coca-Cola spokesperson said in an email in August.
Liberty, a Philadelphia-based bottler servicing restaurants, supermarkets and retailers in northeastern states, last summer began using a KeelClip 1600 multipacking machine at its Elmsford, New York, facility to apply clip-style paper packaging to beverage cans that Graphic Packaging said eliminates the need for plastic rings and shrink film.
Liberty estimates that by transitioning the 3.1 million cases, out of approximately 42 million to 45 million total cases of cans and bottles typically processed at the Elmsford facility, it effectively eliminated nearly 42 tons of plastic from the supply chain in that span. Liberty is now reviewing other product types and sizes that could be packaged using plastic-free alternatives.
Dylan Penn, senior operations engineering manager at Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, said that one initial challenge for it or other bottlers in transitioning to this technology, regardless of vendor, is that the new machinery doesn’t identically match the footprint of its previous equipment. This poses slight difficulties in terms of fitting the solution into its existing production processes throughout facilities.
Additionally, the raw material costs more for paperboard than for plastic alternatives. “But our investment into this package is a commitment toward the future,” and there’s potential for economies of scale as other North American partners adopt alternatives, Penn said.
Despite Coca-Cola’s varied network of bottlers, “we're not operating in a vacuum,” Penn said. “We are communicating some of our learnings and opportunities in the space.”
In Europe, DS Smith announced this month a collaboration with Coca-Cola HBC Austria to replace plastic handles on 1.5 liter PET soft drink multi-packs with cardboard-based outer packaging. The Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Mezzo packs are being rolled out at grocery stores in Austria.
DS Smith says the 100% recyclable corrugated handle, dubbed Lift Up, can be used on different bottle sizes and has a soft, easy-to-carry grip. The company did not have additional information to provide regarding expansion of the product in other countries.
Stefano Rossi, CEO of the packaging solutions division at DS Smith, said in a statement that the packaging was designed using the company’s Circular Design Metrics approach, aiming to use the least amount of material possible and reduce environmental impact while still looking appealing at points of retail. “Collaboration with our partners Coca-Cola HBC and Krones is key to reducing single use plastics and delivering innovative change at scale,” Rossi said.


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The Commonwealth Secretariat’ has launched the Commonwealth Digital Trade Hackathon at the Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF 2022), held on the margins of the ongoing Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali, Rwanda.
The hackathon is a joint initiative between the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Connectivity Agenda (CCA) and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO).
The Commonwealth Digital Trade Hackathon, with the theme “Harnessing Technology to Transform the Digital Trade Economy”, aims to develop innovative solutions that increase the adoption of digital technology in the Commonwealth and beyond, the need for which has been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proposed solutions will therefore seek to explore high-potential existing and new technologies that can facilitate trade and cross-border paperless trade.
Speaking at the Youth Forum, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland said, “I am delighted that we are officially launching another important project for young people. We are asking you to lead the future charge in building resilient, sustainable and interconnected digital economies across the Commonwealth. We are asking you to take part in a unique HACKATHON: “Harnessing Technology to Transform the Digital Trade Economy.
“This Hackathon will scout, select and support impact-driven teams with game-changing solutions – designed to harness the shift to digitalisation across the Commonwealth and beyond. Trade is a vital connection in our Commonwealth family, and this hackathon will directly engage you to come up with fresh, innovative ideas to harness digital technology to facilitate trade and cross border paperless trade”.
On her part, Secretary-General of the CTO, Ms. Bernadette Lewis, said, “There is no returning to December 2019 and while trade is recovering, there are many more opportunities for fostering digital trade. This Hackathon will challenge you to re-imaging trade – examine the existing barriers to digital trade and developing software solutions to overcome them”.
Lewis also noted that “The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation is pleased to be a partner with the Commonwealth Secretariat to convene this Hackathon. This endeavour is part of our push to support The Commonwealth’s Connectivity Agenda, to explore and develop technologies that can facilitate cross border paperless trade. This project will bring together finance and technology innovators and major technology institutions. The winner of the Commonwealth Digital Trade Hackathon will receive a cash prize as well as entrepreneurial support.”
The Commonwealth Digital Trade Hackathon is open to teams with scale-ready solutions that want to accelerate their impact. Among the solutions that the hackathon seeks to come up with are increasing accessibility to reduce barriers to trade through efficient digital infrastructure; promoting inclusive growth, including experience sharing, digital skills development and industrial upskilling; improving agricultural and fisheries connectivity; promoting business to business partnerships that support inclusive and sustainable economic recovery


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(This article was originally published Friday.)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Ample growth opportunities, a ready customer base and untapped profit potential are expected to drive U.S. retailers into Canada during the next couple of years.
The trip north is an easy way to mount international expansion while keeping a very close eye on its progress. The similarity of customers on both sides of the border makes big changes to stores and merchandise generally unnecessary. And the idea of a less crowded retail field eases competitive pressures and the difficulties of finding new space in U.S. markets.
"The U.S. market is largely tapped out in terms of expansion opportunity and consumer demand has softened," said Madison Riley, managing director at retail consulting firm Kurt Salmon. "At the same time, the Canadian economy did not suffer as much as ours and there are virtually no regulatory hurdles."
This week saw two major retailers take big steps in their Canadian expansion.: Target Corp.
Also on Thursday, Big Lots Inc.
Other U.S. retailers with plans to enter Canada include Express Inc.
On the higher end, Nordstrom Inc.
With a move into Canada, the companies would join a number of U.S. retailers already doing business in the country, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
TJX said it receives its highest financial returns from its Canadian operations, where it has Winners, HomeSense, STYLESENSE and, as of March, Marshalls stores, which the latter seen growing to as many as 100 locations.
"We have found that Canadian customers are not very different from those in the U.S.," TJX spokeswoman Sherry Lang said. "Generally what plays in U.S. retail plays in Canadian retail; customers really appreciate value."
U.S. mid-market department stores are one type of retailer that have so far been quiet about heading north, despite chatter that it is a logical next step for them.
"While international stores remain a long-term interest of the company, we have no current plans," Macy's Inc.
A spokeswoman for J.C. Penney declined to comment, saying the retailer has not publicly addressed the topic.
Canada does seem to offer a potential bounty, if U.S. retailers execute well. Expressed in U.S. dollars, per-capita retail spending in Canada is equal to the U.S. As recently as 2004, Canadians' retail sales per capita were $8,000 while Americans' spending power was 50% higher, at about $12,000 per capita, according to a study by real estate brokerage Colliers International. The strong Canadian dollar currently is also appealing, as are shopping center sales that average $580 per square foot in Canada compared to $309 in the U.S., Colliers said.


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Parsons Gifts & Cards opened in its new location in the Suwanee Jubilee Shopping Center between Duluth and Suwanee on Thursday, Aug. 2. The new store site at 1500 Peachtree Industrial Blvd. is just beyond the Suwanee city limits sign on PIB.
The popular Duluth business, owned by Carey and Patsy Odum, was required to move quickly from 2780 Buford Hwy. after its landlord sold the building in the Duluth Station Shopping Center, where the store leased 5,000 square feet of retail space, to a Korean Presbyterian church from Norcross. The church plans to renovate the entire building and relocate to Duluth by October. Parsons Gifts & Cards had 90 days to find a new location with an Aug. 1 moving deadline.
The Odums built the building in the Duluth shopping center 15 years ago, but sold it about eight years afterwards along with the Parsons Hardware and Garden Center, which later closed. The current owner sold the building to the church.
“We really had to scramble,” Mrs. Odum said. “We found the best and closest place to our existing market.” The new leased space is comparable in size, containing about 4,000 square feet.
Parsons Gifts & Cards serves customers from Suwanee, Johns Creek, Duluth, Buford, and Lawrenceville.
The new store plans to continue to be open seven days a week with similar hours as the former Duluth store.
Parsons Gifts & Cards offers a large selection of gifts including Brighton, Vera Bradley and Pandora merchandise lines.


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WASHINGTON—The Biden administration has proposed higher energy-efficiency standards for home furnaces powered by natural gas, which could cause a popular form of gas heater that lacks condensing equipment to be phased out, appliance industry officials and conservation groups say.
Gas heaters without condensing equipment are cheaper to purchase and make up about half of new gas heater sales, according to a 2016 U.S. Energy Department report.
Back-to-School Sale: Extra 25% off sitewide - JCPenney coupon code
Walmart coupon: $20 off your $50+ order
- Best Buy:
Save 15% or more on the Best Buy deal of the Day
Up to 15% off + free shipping at Wayfair
Nike Gear Up for Fall Sale: Up to 50% off
- Dick's Sporting Goods:
10% off sitewide - Dick's Sporting Goods coupons


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(Pocket-lint) - Amazon has opened its first Amazon Fresh grocery store in Los Angeles for in-person shopping, and you don't need a special invite to get inside.
The store, which first opened as part of an invite-only scheme last month, is now open to all. Anyone who wants to visit can from 7am to 10pm PT. It is meant to be a cheaper option to Amazon-owned Whole Foods stores, according to CBNC. Located in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of LA, the store sells groceries from national and local brands as well as food that has been prepared on site.
It doesn't use cashierless ("Just Walk Out”) technology, but shoppers can try out Amazon’s Dash Carts equipped with cameras and sensors. To use these carts, you log-in using the Amazon app, and then the cart can identify which items you place inside it, allowing you to automatically pay without having to wait in line at the checkout. It works with shopping lists you make with Alexa, too.
Amazon said shoppers will also be able to use Echo Show devices around its Fresh store to help aid their shopping experience.
In comparison, Amazon Go grocery stores, which are thought to be a third smaller than the new 35,000 square-foot Fresh store, use Amazon's Just Walk Out tech, or a series of overhead cameras with pressure-sensitive shelves, which can identify what you pick up and want to buy.
Although this is the first time Fresh has opened for in-person shopping, the store has been fulfilling online orders since April. Amazon offers free same-day delivery for Prime members and in-store pickup options for online orders at the service counter or dedicated pick-up parking spots.
Amazon hasn't said whether its online-only Fresh stores in Chicago and in Irvine and Northridge, California will also open to the public.


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Is Hershey Chocolate Breaking Up with Corn Syrup?
These days, mainstream confections in the United States are synonymous with the high fructose corn syrup. Inexpensive and ultra-sweet, high fructose corn syrup has allowed confectionery manufacturers to keep their products consistent and cost-efficient for a few decades now—but the drawbacks of high fructose corn syrup have left consumers wanting a change of sweeteners, and manufacturers are listening.
One of those manufacturers in particular is The Hershey Co., processor of everything from its flagship Hershey’s Chocolate bars to Krackel, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and York Peppermint Patties (and dozens more chocolate-centric candy and syrup brands). According to a report from the Associated Press, The Hershey Co. could have plans to begin distancing itself from high fructose corn syrup and to start looking at getting back to more traditional sweetening methods:
As the piece mentions, The Hershey Co. isn’t totally dependent on high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener even now—while its candy bars like Almond Joy and York Peppermint Patties are sweetened with corn syrup, its classic standard Hershey bars use traditional sugar. But consumer concerns over health issues like diabetes and obesity linked to high fructose corn syrup have the confectionery company now exploring a return to traditional sugar for all of its chocolates.
RELATED CONTENT FROM FDF WORLD:
- Is the World Really Running Out of Chocolate?
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It’s still a ways off before any concrete changes are made, as the company states that it’s only in its beginning phases of exploration of this subject:
Still, the fact that Hershey is considering it to begin with is still major—it’s a giant brand with a lot of influence on its peers and smaller businesses. If it does start to make real changes, this could be the beginning of a major shift in the way that confectionery and snack food companies create their products.
[SOURCE: Associated Press]


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Cinema of Fear Leatherface
Mezco has announced their latest 1/6th scale creation, Leatherface from the horror classic “A Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. This 1/6 scale figure captures all the gory details of Leatherface, from the top of his masked face to the bottom of his cowboy boots. The blood spattered real cloth apron, the titular chainsaw, and his infamous mallet are all included.
Leatherface will be in stores in November 2010, or you can pre-order now from Mezco Direct for $40.


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Rating: Naturally Tradedoubler report finds iPhones are prolific spenders
The landscape for mobile purchasing is complex according to a recent report from Tradedoubler entitled Mobile Devices & Behaviour. The company is urging brands to carefully target their offerings if they want to cover all the bases. An interesting finding, however, is that BlackBerry owners are more active purchasers than Android fans so they shouldn’t be left out of the equation. Significantly, Android users are more likely to surf for what they want rather than download an app. Hence the importance of having a mobile friendly version of your web site.The figures for iPhone users are, indeed, truly impressive. 70 per cent of iPhone owners use apps daily and 28 per cent search for vouchers and coupons at least once a week.
Plus 25 per cent of them search for vouchers in-store and 22 per cent receive location-based special offers.
Furthermore, 21 per cent have price comparison apps and 23 per cent have daily deals installed on their iPhones, whilst 20 per cent use their phone as a loyalty card
iPhone owners are the most engaged users, and are most likely to access the mobile web daily (80 per cent); research products weekly (46 per cent); and make purchases weekly or more often (20 per cent).
Next up are BlackBerry owners who regularly research products (31 per cent at least weekly); hunt down coupons’ and purchase weekly or more often using their handsets (13 per cent).
By contrast, only 10 per cent of Android owners purchase weekly. But brands can only ignore Android users at their peril.
According to Dan Cohen, market unit leader with Tradedoubler, “Many Android owners are experiencing a smartphone for the first time.”
“However, given the platform’s growing share, it will become increasingly important to engage Android owners effectively.”
The mix is made even complex by the behaviour of tablet – rather than smartphone users.
Tablet owners are more likely to convert research on their device into a purchase, with 35 per cent saying it is a preferred means of purchasing products.
Additionally, they are significantly more likely to buy higher ticket items, with nearly one in five (18 per cent) having spent more than £500 in one transaction.
So if Android users aren’t downloading apps, what do retailers do?
The answer, apparently is that a place on price comparison sites – offering strong integration with barcode apps – becomes essential for influencing purchase decisions for Android users.
So in effect, as Cohen says, there are two options when it comes to developing a mobile strategy for performance marketing.
Firstly, target solutions at the groups who are most engaged with shopping on their devices.
Or, secondly, develop a strategy that can work across devices and channels by side-stepping the limitations and frustrations of certain platforms.
In the run-up to Xmas those brands that get it right will score. According to a recent survey from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) , 61 per cent of marketers plan to increase investment in affiliate marketing next year.


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Apple's legal department allegedly is strong-arming the AppleInsider blog. The site in March published details about the latest OS X build, commenting that it "carries with it a significant laundry list of impending issues that will need to be ironed out before any such public release is considered." Apple wants that report taken down.
Few people paid attention to the incident. Apple Insider after all has a pretty poor track record in accurately reporting about upcoming Apple products. But on Thursday Apple decided to delay the release of its OS X 10.5 Tiger, claiming that it needed additional time to test the upcoming product.
Also, what's a USB stick?
Gravitational waves become extremely weak by the time they reach the Earth and require highly sensitive equipment for detection
The reactor topped out at 100 million° C
Cosmic event will not cause any disruption on Earth, say scientists


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October 12, 2020
Last night, the Los Angeles Lakers clinched their 17th NBA Championship—a bright spot in a year of extreme upheaval from the coronavirus pandemic and the racial injustice that continues to plague the country.
April 16, 2019
Nike pays tribute to Dirk Nowitzki, the highest-scoring European in the NBA, as his career comes to a close by turning his story into a comic book and animation.
December 29, 2015
Kobe Bryant, Elena Delle Donne, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Kyrie Irving and LeBron James all take part in this five-minute basketball film from Nike that debuted on Christmas Day.
May 02, 2014
The Lakers' Kobe Bryant and Nike Basketball recently tweeted out this Vine, showing the NBA star spinning a basketball, which then transforms into a Nike soccer ball and then
June 21, 2012
Right after the Miami Heat and LeBron James won the title at the NBA Finals last night, Nike Basketball aired this ad, which showed the intertwined fates of the NBA championship ring's maker and the basketball star.
January 30, 2011
The second trailer for the upcoming Black Mamba film, directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Bruce Willis, Danny Trejo and Kanye West. The film, supporting the Nike Zoom Kobe VI debuts during the NBA All-Star weekend.
January 25, 2011
An online image of Kobe Bryant will transform into a black mamba once enough fans are tweeting about him – emulating his nickname and ability to strike without warning on court.


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How Indian startups are turning big data into a cash cow.
They are setting the standard.
The first Indian start-ups are making huge gains and will not rest until they achieve profitability.
In fact, the entire ecosystem of start-up activity is moving towards big data.
A new ecosystem of Start-upsThe emergence of Indian start up industries is not only about the emergence of new businesses.
The success of a start-UP is also related to the success of the ecosystem it exists in.
The big data ecosystem in India has been building momentum over the last few years.
The growth of the Indian start ups is in part driven by the adoption of big data by the startups themselves.
Start-up companies have been trying to harness big data to help them understand the world better, understand customers better, and develop new products and services.
Big data can be used for various purposes such as analytics, sales, advertising, marketing, social media, and more.
Startups are finding out that big data is a powerful tool and can help them build their products and increase their customer base.
Indian companies have started to tap big data with huge success, which will make the ecosystem much stronger.
The ecosystem is not yet mature, but it has started to get traction and is starting to evolve into a big business.
The growth of Indian companies is not just about the establishment of new companies, it is also about the evolution of the start-Up ecosystem.
The biggest drivers of the growth of start up companies are the growth in the number of people participating in the ecosystem and the number participating in their companies.
Indian startups are not just looking for new customers.
They want to engage with existing customers.
And the most successful Indian start companies have built up a huge following by building relationships with existing consumers.
“The biggest driver of the success in the growth, the growth is not in the startups itself.
It is about the growth through their customer bases,” said Arvind Gupta, chief executive officer of Gurgaon-based DigitalHub.
He added that the ecosystem has been built over time.
Start up companies have also built up relationships with investors, which in turn, are driving the growth.
“We have investors and entrepreneurs investing in us, but also the investors in us are also investors in India,” said Kumar Bhattacharya, co-founder of start Upvida, an e-commerce start-off company.
In order to make a big impact on the world, start- ups are looking to make money.
The Indian startups need to tap into a wide range of new sources of revenue to drive growth.
These include social media and advertising, e-marketing, media platforms, ecommerce platforms, and other businesses that need to be acquired and monetized.
The number of e-tailers and digital publishers has also increased.
The demand for the services is growing, but the demand for e-products is declining.
And of course, there is the fact that people are searching for information on new products.
As a result, the ecosystem of Indian startups is undergoing a revolution.
Start ups are turning to big data and using it to deliver their services, which has also led to a new kind of ecosystem.
While Indian start tech companies have to start from scratch, they are beginning to use big data tools.
As a result of this, Indian start entrepreneurs have been building their business in the cloud, with the help of cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure.
The cloud is also allowing start up to start with a business plan, which makes it much easier for them to build an ecosystem around the big analytics and marketing data they need.
With the introduction of Microsoft Azure and other new services like BigQuery, Microsoft is building an ecosystem for big data analytics and data marketing in India.
Microsoft is also taking the next step by providing its customers with a range of services to enable their data to be used across their businesses.
Big data is not a new phenomenon.
It has been used by Indian start startups for many years.
But the number and scope of Indian entrepreneurs building data platforms, businesses, and applications has grown exponentially in the last five years.
This has led to the emergence and the rapid growth of data-centric start- up industries in India, as well as in other countries.
The data-focused start–ups in India are also finding the opportunity in big data, which is a big opportunity for them.
India has a growing number of start ups with the most innovative data products.
India has a lot of startups with a lot to offer the world.
We will be seeing many of them grow, even more in the coming years.


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April 20, 2015
Whole Foods Market Recalls Packaged Raw Macadamia Nuts
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services received information regarding a recall of packaged raw macadamia nuts due to possible Salmonella contamination.
The product was labeled as "Whole Foods Market Raw Macadamia Nuts" and was packaged in 11 oz. plastic tubs. The recalled product has a best-by date of Feb. 4, 2016 and a UPC code of 7695862059-1.
Recalled items were sold in AR, AZ, CA, CO, HI, KS, LA, NM, NV, OK, TX and UT Whole Foods Market Stores.
Click here for the full recall.


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The acclaimed Ethiopian software development firm, Qene Technologies, announces the release of the follow-up to their App Africa Award-winning game Kukulu. The new game, Gebeta, is based on the traditional African board game Mancala. Qene Technologies CEO/Co-Founder, Dawit Abraham, says the company aspires to create games set within an African context. They hope that this will inspire younger generations to take a stronger interest in African media and gaming.
Gebeta will be released on November 1st. Abraham says, “This is a soft launch that will be available worldwide.” Qene Technologies will release the game in Android form exclusively at first but plans to release an iOS version soon after. Moreover, they plan to include a multiplayer feature shortly after the launch.
Qene Technologies focuses on creating visually rich games. In developing Gebeta, the team strove to bring prestige to a game that the African content, as well as the world, has known and loved for a long time.
Gebeta follows Kukulu, which won the Best News & Entertainment Solution Award in 2018 at the prestigious Apps Africa Awards. The game is named after a brave chicken that needs to run from her farmer before ending up on the dinner table. The player’s mission is to help her escape this situation and restart life in an enchanted forest.


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Internet connectivity is a two-way street. With IoT devices becoming a gateway to our homes, workplaces, and industries, they also become targets for attacks. According to a Microsoft survey, nearly all enterprises have security concerns when implementing IoT, but this is not hindering adoption.
Magnus Ewerbring, CTO-APAC at Ericsson on Thursday said that India needs to drive the 5G process as quickly as possible so that it can fully benefit the consumers and industries.
This is how AI adoption has led to reduced latency and faster responses in data aggregation.
Just 8.7 per cent of homes in South Asia have Internet of Things (IoT) or "connected" devices such as Internet-enabled TVs or surveillance camera against a global average of 40 per cent, new research said on Monday.
Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Key industries for IoT in India are expected to be utilities (water and electricity), manufacturing, transport and logistics, automotive industries and healthcare
On an average, the company captures about 315 GB of data and processes one billion data packages on a daily basis. That amounts to capturing 40 million kilometers of vehicle tracking data daily which is equivalent to four roundtrips from the sun to the earth.
Workplaces today need future proofing with improved experience and facility management. AI is your savior.
VIL has implemented PIM solution for IT and NW to control, monitor all privileges access to systems. Additionally, we have enabled digital verification of customer credentials, on-boarding and have set up digital interface for enterprise customers to provision on demand services” Vishant Vora, CTO, Vodafone Idea said in a candid conversation with ETCIO.
Siemens is also setting up a digital services and consultancy arm, with India at the core of it with a 4,000-strong team of ‘internet of things’ (IoT) and software experts.
CISOs need to carefully evaluate the upcoming trade-off between innovation and security and apply this judiciously to their respective organizations; inculcating a security mindset in the process.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the Cloud arm of retail giant Amazon has announced the third availability zone in its Mumbai Cloud Region.
Leading Internet of Things (IoT) service provider Unlimit of the Reliance ADA Group on Thursday opened its research and development (R&D) centre in this tech hub for innovations in the IoT domain.
In a wide-ranging interview with ETCIO.COM, Daisy Chittilapilly Managing Director- Digital Transformation Office, Cisco discusses the company’s changing business model, its impact, and the promise of intent based networking, 5G, WiFi6
The Internet of Things is nothing but a growing network of physical devices that easily get connected to the Internet and also to each other, possessing the ability to collect and share large volumes of information/ data.
Implementation of blockchain in IoT is making great strides but it is still far from perfect and needs to overcome challenges.
To amass growth, companies including VMware, Silicon Labs, and Nokia enhancing their IoT lineup.


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Putnam County Executive
March 19, 2014
Residents Save $700K with Prescription Discount Card
In February of 2012, Putnam County and ProAct implemented a free prescription drug discount card program for all county residents. As the program approaches its second year, Putnam County residents have combined to save over $700,000 on nearly 11,000 prescriptions.
Putnam County is one of many counties across the country who have endorsed the ProAct administered program to provide lower costing prescriptions for their residents. There are no enrollment forms or application fees to utilize the program and every resident within the county is eligible to participate regardless of age, income or existing health care coverage.
“We wanted to make sure county residents didn’t have to pay the full cash price for their prescription medications. Having a discount program like the Pro-Act Prescription Discount Card available to all of our residents, making it less costly for them to obtain their prescribed medications just makes sense – no pun intended,” said County Executive MaryEllen Odell. “It’s obvious our residents approve of the idea as they have taken to using their Pro-Act cards regularly for almost two years.”
The Putnam County Prescription Discount Card is completely anonymous and has already been activated for residents’ convenience. In order to receive the savings associated with the program, a resident must present their prescription and discount card at a participating pharmacy. More than 60,000 pharmacies across the country now participate in the program. Residents can locate the nearest participating store by visiting www.NYRxDiscountCard.com or by calling the ProAct helpdesk at 1-877-776-2285. Those who utilize the program can expect to see savings ranging from 10-20% off name brand medications and 20-70% off generic medications. The discount card cannot be used to reduce co-pays or deductibles, and the card cannot be used in conjunction with any form of insurance.
The Prescription Discount Card Program is completely free to taxpayers, the county and to participating residents. There are no restrictions on card usage.
I encourage every resident in the county to carry a card to avoid paying the full cash price for any of their medications,” said Odell.
Cards are available at participating pharmacies, the Department of Social Services, the Health Department, and the County Office Building. Residents having access to the internet can download a card at www.NYRxDiscountCard.com.


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In one brief keynote, the company announced a car infotainment device, yet more updates to the standard Echo speaker and Dot line, a subwoofer, a set of stereo amplifiers, a Chromecast Audio competitor, a smart wall clock, a smart plug, and a super-powered Slingbox-style device for over-the-air programming. Oh and lest we forget, Amazon also made a microwave with Alexa built in, using it as a model to start competing with companies like KitchenAid, LG, and Samsung by making Alexa the go-to voice assistant and AI hub for household appliances. In addition to building its own devices, the company also invests in startups through its Alexa Fund to scout new and promising entrants and product categories, and it’s acquired quite a few of those companies — including security cam startup Blink and smart doorbell maker Ring — to ensure it has every corner of the smart home covered.
Although the company did raise the minimum wage for all of its employees earlier this month, it’s plowing ahead on warehouse robotics and automation in a way that could fundamentally reshape how its lowest-paid employees perform work — and how many of those employees it needs to retain. Amazon now uses more than 100,000 robots in warehouses around the world to help move and organize products, according to The New York Times, and it also sponsors an annual robotics competition to help spur innovation in AI that could result in more dexterous and intelligent robots capable of performing complex physical tasks.
Jump up ^ "Pitch Perfect". On The Media. January 1, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-01-09. Retrieved 2010-01-16. He figured out that he could build brand recognition by blanketing the airwaves with cheap direct-to-consumer commercials, and then take the product into retail stores where he slapped an "As Seen On TV" logo on them, which he designed himself. It’s a very lucrative formula, he told me, so that’s what he’s been doing ever since.
Amazon, seeing the obvious opportunity here, reportedly outbid none other than Google to become Twitch’s parent company three years later, with the AWS infrastructure a big part of why Twitch CEO Emmett Shear decided to take the deal. Now, four years later, Twitch has outlasted both YouTube and Facebook’s attempts to snatch away its market share and, given the popularity of titles like Epic Games’ Fortnite, has become an even more integral fixture of modern online life and youth culture. Amazon has more recently integrated Twitch into its Prime subscription, giving subscribers free games and complementary channel subscriptions.
Twitch started in 2007 as a 24-hour live stream of co-founder Justin Kan’s life (he coined the term “lifecasting”) called Justin.tv, but it became very clear very quickly that live gaming content was more popular than pretty much anything else. In 2011, Twitch spun off gaming-centric channels as Twitch.tv, and it grew exponentially as online games and the technology to broadcast them live on the internet became more widespread and popular.
If you’re registering as a business, you will be asked to supply your business name, the business’ contact information, your credit card information and tax identification number. You will also be asked to verify your phone number by supplying a 4-digit pin during an automated call or text. The process is generally fast and sellers can begin listing items immediately.
The domain amazon.com attracted at least 615 million visitors annually by 2008. Amazon attracts over 130 million customers to its US website per month by the start of 2016. The company has also invested heavily on a massive amount of server capacity for its website, especially to handle the excessive traffic during the December Christmas holiday season.
While Amazon grew in the ‘90s largely thanks to its growing share of the print book market and its dominance of online book sales, it was its early investments in ebooks and e-readers that turned it into a digital publishing and book-selling powerhouse. Amazon began work on its first Kindle e-reader starting in 2004 under codename Fiona, with its internal Lab126 hardware division leading the product development process. The first device was released in November of 2007 and sold for $399. Amazon has since released numerous iterations of the Kindle, and it now dominates the e-reader market after edging out competing products from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and others.
In November 2015, Amazon opened its first physical bookstore location. It is named Amazon Books and is located in University Village in Seattle. The store is 5,500 square feet and prices for all products match those on its website. Amazon will open its tenth physical book store in 2017; media speculation suggests Amazon plans to eventually roll out 300 to 400 bookstores around the country. Amazon plans to open brick and mortar bookstores in Germany.
Amazon's state sales tax collection policy has changed over the years since it did not collect any sales taxes in its early years. In the U.S., state and local sales taxes are levied by state and local governments, not at the federal level. In most countries where Amazon operates, a sales tax or value added tax is uniform throughout the country, and Amazon is obliged to collect it from all customers. Proponents of forcing Amazon.com to collect sales tax—at least in states where it maintains a physical presence—argue the corporation wields an anti-competitive advantage over storefront businesses forced to collect sales tax.
While sites like eBay and Craigslist allow you to list any item barring certain exceptions, Amazon asks that you find a similar product in its database. If you can’t find a similar product, Amazon has a procedure for creating a new product page. You should be aware, however, that new products often require additional approval from Amazon before listing can occur.
Amazon’s transformation into the world’s more pervasive retail operation wouldn’t be complete unless the company began a seemingly counterintuitive push from online to offline. Starting with its brick-and-mortar bookstores in 2015 — first in Seattle and now in Chicago and New York City — Amazon established its intent to compete on all fronts with its retail competitors.
When it comes to TV sales personalities, none are more famous and revered than the late Billy Mays. Mays ran commercials for dozens of different products, but perhaps the most popular of those products was OxiClean, which is an easy to use, non-toxic, and remarkably effective cleaning detergent that can take care of dishes, polish silver, and clean virtually anything else. Billy Mays put his trademark enthusiasm behind the product, and its quality is known worldwide.


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Last week, we did an article bringing together several concepts for future iProducts. But they do not stop appearing by the way, there are a lot of designers with time left or so they dream of getting a job there in Cupertino.
Shall we go to the new ones?
?Apple TV Air?
Another created by the people of the German website CURVED, sees a new version of Apple TV with a format there Google's Chromecast. The kit with the dongle HDMI and the remote would cost just $ 49 in the United States.
Based on recent rumors about the iPhone 6 having a design inspired by the iPhone 5c and the iPod nano of the seventh generation, the iCulture in partnership with Martin Hajek imagined that the new smartphone (whose screen would have 4.7 inches) could look more or less like this:
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What are you thinking?


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An overwhelming majority of holiday shoppers will respond to retailers’ promotions offering free shipping, and they will ultimately shop with the retailer who can guarantee an on-time delivery date and/or the best shopping experience, according to MarketLive’s annual online retailer survey and recommendations for the 2013 holiday retail season.
Among the consumer trends that online retailers can expect this holiday shopping season:
- 91% of online shoppers will respond to a promotion that offers free standard shipping
- 87% will shop with the online retailer who can guarantee an on-time delivery date
- 72% want to buy or reserve a product online (or via their mobile phone) for pickup, before coming to the store
- 69% plan to shop online on Cyber Monday (edging out the 68% who plan to shop on Black Friday)
- 65% of online shoppers still want a traditional gift card/gift certificate to give and rank it the #1 gifting tool
- 52% want online retailers to have a Wish List or registry where they can find out what others want
- 38% will be loyal to a retailer because of their loyalty/rewards program; 51% will be loyal because of their customer service; 90% will be loyal because of their prices
- 31% will pay full price for a gift if they receive free shipping
“Online shoppers have become quite savvy. They know how to comparison shop from their mobile phones and they have come to expect certain things like free shipping,” said Ken Burke, founder and chairman of MarketLive. “But our survey also uncovered many tactical things that online retailers can do this holiday season—like tangible gift cards, 24/7 customer service reps and online ratings and social sharing—to attract customers, retain margins, and compete successfully this holiday season.”
The survey sample included 1,000 consumer questionnaires. The report illustrates consumer survey results with tactical examples drawn from promotional campaigns by Nordstrom, Sport Chalet, Sephora, Cost Plus World Market, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Pottery Barn, REI, Restoration Hardware, Sundance Catalog, Helzberg Diamonds, Amazon, Blue Nile, and Francesca’s.
“This year’s survey underlined the need for retailers to prepare and be able to adapt more than ever for the holiday season,” said Lauren Freedman, President of the e-tailing group, which conducted the survey on MarketLive’s behalf. “Responses clearly demonstrate that online shopping is becoming the norm across all categories – and price and a near-perfect experience are the drivers of conversion.”


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On January 31st, The New York Times announced it had purchased Wordle for a price “in the low seven figures.” This comes as the company aims to reach 10 million digital subscriptions by 2025.
“The Times remains focused on becoming the essential subscription for every English-speaking person seeking to understand and engage with the world,” reads a company statement. “New York Times Games are a key part of that strategy.”
The New York Times acquired the game from its creator Josh Wardle. According to The Times, the game will initially remain free to both new and existing players.
Wordle is a spelling game that has quickly risen to global popularity since it was launched in October. Now, the game boasts over a million daily players.
The Profit‘s Take:
This acquisition didn’t make as many waves as Microsoft x Activision-Blizzard or Sony x Bungie, but it’s still noteworthy. It sounds like New York Times’ games have a larger audience than the actual publication. Four months from release to acquisition is pretty impressive. If this is such a phenomenon, I’m curious why other hyper casual mobile game developers didn’t go after this. This would have been an easy pickup for a Zynga or a King. I respect Josh Wardle a lot for this. He’s getting life-changing money for something he launched quite recently. I totally understand why he sold out here. If they spent $1-$3 million on this, you don’t have to see a ton of growth or retention to justify this purchase.
(All information was provided by The New York Times)
Check out the industry-leading META Business podcast where we discuss the intersection of business and the metaverse
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Several friends and like-mindeds of billionaire Elona Muska have reported that Tesla’s CEO plans to move to Texas, given that he sold his home for sale in California this year during the period he entered. conflict with public authorities over restrictions related to Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Musk is expanding his Texas business and maintaining good ties with Republican Governor Greg Abbot, News.ro reports.
Musk, the second richest man in the world after Jeff Bezos, is already frequent in Texas. He spends most of his time between Austin, where Tesla and its Boring Company operate, and the coastal village of Boca Chica, home to the SpaceX unit.
SpaceX was launched in Texas in 2003.
READ ALSO The US deadline for the sale of TikTok has passed without any effect
Musk often photos and videos of the Twitter and SpaceX testing and launch center, known as the Starship Production Complex.
In California, whose super-rich are often criticized for high taxes and strict regulations, during the pandemic, the technology industry ran out of big names as companies tried to cut costs and prepare for the future of split work.
Musk was among the strongest critics this year, comparing the state to the league’s sports team, which became satisfied and created “a problem because it has won for too long”.
In May, while California companies were forced to remain closed due to the pandemic, Musk wrote on Twitter that he was relocating Tesla’s headquarters and further development from California to Texas and Nevada.
Leaving California, the country with the highest income tax in Texas, a non-taxable state, could save Musku billions of dollars based on his 2018 compensation package.
Musk has received 101.3 million options (adjusted for a 5 to 1 share split this year) that are being used over time as the company reaches certain benchmarks, including market capitalization.
READ ALSO Standard & Poor’s affirmed Romania’s rating at BBB- / A-3 with a negative outlook
Tesla shares have risen 782% over the past year. In October, Musk had won prizes worth about $ 20 billion before taxes, based on Thursday’s deal, which is part of the total potential.
Musk claims to sell all his “physical goods” and wrote on Twitter in May that “he will not own any house”. Shortly afterwards, Musks put up for sale several homes in California.
The CNBC has not been able to find any public records that indicate that it has officially changed residence, and the main address of the White Pages online database is still Los Angeles.
Even people who know him well and know his general plans to move to Texas say that they do not know exactly where he is when he is there and that he is trying to keep this information private.
It seems that the country’s top official, Governor Abbot, is confident that Musk will take this step.
READ ALSO The capital’s horror museum of communism will be temporarily opened. Temporary residence of the new museum
In July, Abbots told CNBC’s Squawk Box that Musk told him he had a Texas driver’s license and that he was now a “bona fide Texas.”
Abbott also said Musk was building his next Tesla plant in Texas because it would give him the freedom to “expand the way he wants to expand.”
When contacted on the subject, an Abbott spokesman declined to comment on Muska’s plans. To help attract the new Tesla plant, local officials have granted the company tens of millions of dollars in property tax exemptions.
Musk confirmed in a second-quarter financial report published in July that the plant will occupy approximately 2,000 hectares 15 minutes from the city center and will be used to build Cybertruck, Semi, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
The billionaire said the factory will start delivering cars next year. In addition to SpaceX and Tesla, Boring Company has an office in Texas. Seven of the 17 jobs the company offers on its website are in Austin, and Musks has proposed building a tunnel there.
The boring investor Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir and a friend of Muska, recently moved to the Austin area of Silicon Valley.
READ ALSO The first trains will run between Gara de Nord and Otopeni Airport on 12 December
Meanwhile, Tesla is still headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and the company continues to build cars in nearby Fremont. SpaceX is headquartered in Los Angeles County.
Muska’s personal financial motivation to leave California is significant. Under the 10-year compensation package approved in 2018, Musks could win more than $ 50 billion in shares and prizes in 12 tranches, reaching fourth.
Using the options, Musk would have to pay income taxes. California’s highest income tax rate is 13.3%. In Texas, it’s zero.
READ ALSO DOCUMENT Closed markets are reopening. Exceptions to traffic restrictions related to elections. UPDATED LIST OF COUNTRIES WITH HIGH Epidemiological Risk
Musk began collecting awards after the company reached a market capitalization of $ 100 billion, as well as adjusted revenue or revenue-specific values. Each $ 50 billion increase in market capitalization to a total market value of $ 650 billion will generate another reward if the revenue or profitability target is met.
The company is already worth more than $ 550 billion, well below $ 100 billion since the beginning of the year. The second and third tranches were launched in the third quarter, and the fourth was completed in October, the company said in its latest quarterly report.
That’s about 33.8 million out of 101.3 million shares. For the package to remain intact, Musk must remain either the CEO or the CEO and Product Manager. Musk, Tesla and SpaceX did not respond immediately to requests for comments.


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Technically Incorrect: In an early stab at April Fools' Day humor, the alleged logo looks like, well, breasts. This might remind you of the real Airbnb logo that reminded some of other female parts.
These six people had never tried virtual reality before. That all changed when we strapped the HTC Vive VR system to each of their heads.
Sprint's prepaid brand rejiggers its unlimited rate plans.
There's nothing baggy about Virgin Galactic's new pilot flight suit. It comes in sleek black and has a design pedigree that will have astronauts stylin' in space.
The first in a new line of entry-level Samsung smartphones arrives in the US.
CNET's Brian Tong puts on a virtual-reality headset and gets a demo of an adult entertainment experience from Naughty America.
Starting October 9, music streamed from Pandora, iHeartRadio and Slacker Radio won't count against Virgin's prepaid data bucket.
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and more. Don't dive into the dizzying world of cell phone rates without asking yourself six important questions.
An opal so fine it has been valued at over $1 million is about to go on public display for the first time.
The two prepaid wireless carriers are offering a 1-gigabyte option for $5, and 2GB for $10.


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Management at fading fashion brand Superdry (SDRY) comes out fighting on Monday as the embattled board seeks to block the return of charismatic co-founder Julian Dunkerton (pictured below) to the struggling jackets and sweatshirts seller.
Currently led by chief executive officer (CEO) Euan Sutherland, the incumbent board insists its strategy is working – an optimistic assessment given the falling knife share price, off another 2p to 520p this morning – arguing Dunkerton’s return would have ‘damaging business impacts’ and that he has ‘no support’ from institutional shareholders in any event.
BOARDROOM BATTLE – THE BACKGROUND
Co-founders and significant shareholders Dunkerton and James Holder have requisitioned a general meeting of shareholders to press for the election of Dunkerton and Boohoo (BOO:AIM) chairman Peter Williams as directors, a meeting Superdry has duly scheduled for 2 April.
Dunkerton has seen the value of his stake shrivel following a slew of profit warnings and wants to correct what he insists is a fundamentally flawed strategy under Sutherland. Passionate ‘Remainer’ Dunkerton was CEO until 2014 before switching to the role of brand director.
He left Superdry completely in March 2018 in order to devote more time to other interests, but he has been angered by a change of strategy at the business he spent years building.
READ MORE ABOUT SUPERDRY HERE
Unsurprisingly, given the bitter public debate that has subsequently broken out between the parties, the Superdry board unanimously recommends shareholders vote down proposals for Dunkerton’s return, claiming it would be counter-productive, disruptive and trigger resignations.
In today’s statement, the board and management team insists they are ‘wholeheartedly and unanimously committed to the continuing delivery of the Global Digital Brand strategy (which has already yielded significant operational and strategic progress),’ – highly debatable given the downgrades that have clobbered the share price – ‘as well as the intensified transformation programme announced in December 2018.’
THINGS GET VERY PETTY
Then things begin to get rather petty, as both parties are laying the blame for the poor performance of Superdry’s ranges at each other’s door. Who are shareholders meant to believe?
Superdry insists it was Dunkerton, as the company’s Brand and Product Director (the role he wants to return to), who ‘had prime executive responsibility for the design direction, range selection and range build of the Autumn/Winter 2018 range, which contributed to the company’s underperformance in full year 2019, and which was representative of underlying issues in the approach to product and innovation.
‘Mr Dunkerton has failed to accept any responsibility for the Autumn/Winter 2018 range, even going as far as to claim that he had no involvement despite extensive and detailed evidence to the contrary.’
DAMAGING BUSINESS IMPACTS?
Superdry also argues that Dunkerton’s return to the fold in any capacity would be ‘extremely damaging to the company and its prospects’, going on to list numerous reasons why this would be the case.
Besides leading to ‘a strategy that would fail’, the board sees Dunkerton’s return re-introducing ‘a leadership style that does not fit within the open-minded collaborative culture, values and operation of the company’, leading to ‘dysfunctional relationships with the board and management’ with the potential to ‘damage morale across the business and cause departures of key personnel, including from within the board.’
Further down the statement, Sutherland and co claim institutional shareholders ‘have voiced strong support’ for the current strategy and management team and insist ‘none of them has indicated to the board any support for Mr Dunkerton’s return to the company.’ Back in November, as he was mounting his campaign to build shareholder support, Dunkerton informed Shares that he was getting very positive shareholder feedback for wrestling back control of Superdry.
In addition, the board cites a ‘lack of transparency with shareholders’ when it comes to the role Dunkerton is now seeking; while he is being nominated as a non-executive director, a role requiring approval from over half of shareholders, ‘he has confirmed to the board he wants an executive role responsible for product, brand and marketing (which would have required approval of at least 75% of the total voting rights of shareholders who are entitled to vote and do so).’
THE EXPERT’S VIEW
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, comments:
'The board of retailer Superdry has come out fighting against a resolution to appoint co-founder and former chief executive Julian Dunkerton and Boohoo chairman Peter Williams as directors.
'Dunkerton and fellow co-founder James Holder on 1 March requisitioned a shareholder meeting and the former’s desire to return to the fold has been in the public domain since last October.
'The situation looks like a classic power struggle. The incumbent directors don’t want to make any changes despite the business going through a very tough patch. And the old CEO hasn’t been able to let go of the business despite no longer working there.
'This isn't a tug of war match where the party with the strongest arm wins the day. It is a battle whose victor will be decided by shareholders as they are part owners of the business. They should vote for the party whose strategy makes best sense to put Superdry back on track.
'We're currently at the stage where this is a blame-game with both sides calling each other nasty names. The real test will come on 2 April when the vote takes place.'


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Disclaimer: The Industry Talk section features insights by crypto industry players and is not a part of the editorial content of Cryptonews.com.
RobotEra is a new crypto presale project that has investors extremely excited ahead of its launch in 2023.
Not only is it a play-to-earn (P2E) game, but RobotEra features NFT ownership and metaverse world-building, allowing players to generate active and passive income in a variety of ways.
An Introduction to RobotEra
RobotEra is a blockchain gaming project that recently launched its presale. The game’s developers have released the game’s design concept, which is proving to be extremely innovative in terms of gameplay and storyline.
Players get to access Taro – a planet which, according to the storyline, was destroyed following an apocalyptic event. The planet is set for a rebuild, and players will be tasked to participate in this rebuilding process.
Taro is a metaverse in which users can choose their avatars and buy territory. All in-store assets are non fungible tokens (NFTs), including avatars, land, and structures.
Players can construct various structures after purchasing land. These structures can be monetized by for example, selling billboard ads, charging concert ticket prices, cultivating sacred trees, and other activities.
Different Avenues to Earn
RobotEra provides players with a simple way to make returns. The more users conduct activities within the game and contribute to rebuilding the planet, the more profit they make.
However, there are other ways to earn as well. RobotEra provides quests and other side activities that players can participate in.
The platform also offers access to communal metaverse activities, such as games, concerts, and more, to reward players for their participation.
TARO – A New Coin On the Rise
Like most blockchain gaming platforms, RobotEra operates using a native token. The platform’s TARO token was named after the virtual world to which players will be transported.
All of RobotEra’s operations are powered by TARO. The digital asset can be used to acquire NFTs within RobotEra’s game system and exchanged for real money when users sell their NFTs and choose to cash out.
With RobotEra already getting traction, TARO appears to be the next big thing in metaverse gaming. The crypto asset is now available on presale and has thus far raised $370,000, grabbing the attention of whales.
🚨 ANOTHER MAJOR MILESTONE ACHIEVED 🚨
🔥 $350,000 RAISED 🔥
DON’T MISS OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY! 🚀
GRAB SOME $TARO BEFORE THE STAGE 1 PRESALE SELLS OUT! ⬇https://t.co/UJ3inomU89 pic.twitter.com/3Lc8WHEtOb— RobotEra (@robotera_io) December 5, 2022
When the markets turn bullish again, blockchain gaming is expected to see more investor interest, and TARO’s fundamentals position it well for future growth.
TARO currently trades at just $0.020. However, the coin’s price will rise to $0.025 in the next stage of the sale.


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NFP is going out at 15:30 MT today. Let’s see what major banks forecast for Nonfarm Payrolls.
American existing home sales head south for sixth month in a row
In September, American home sales went down by the most for more than two years due to the fact that the housing market kept struggling notwithstanding strength across the broader American economy.
On Friday, the National Association of Realtors told that existing home sales sank by about 3.4% to a seasonally updated annual rate of nearly 5.15 million units in September.
Home sales have been going down for six months. A dearth of properties for sale ramped up prices, thus sidelining a great number of potential homeowners. The South demonstrated the most impressive tumble in sales, while the sink in the West left sales amounted to 12.2% from 2017.
According to some leading market experts, the overall slump had to do with a jump in interest rates.
Besides this, supply has also been affected by soaring building material costs and also land as well as labor shortages. Meanwhile, soaring mortgage rates are anticipated to step down demand.
In September, the Federal Reserve had borrowing costs lifted for the third time in 2018 and it’s widely anticipated to proceed with its rate lifts in December.
Market experts in a recent interview by Reuters had predicted existing home sales sinking to 5.30 million from a previously disclosed 5.34 million. By the way, existing home sales occupy nearly 90% of American home sales.
In September, there were 1.88 million houses on the market, which appears to be a 1.1% leap from 2017.
At September's sales tempo, it would take up to 4.4% to have the current inventory cleared. A supply of 6-7 months is considered to be a rational balance between demand and supply.
As a matter of fact, the median house price surged by 4.2% from 2017 hitting $258,100 in September.
The Australian economy has been on a steady recovery path, and now we have a very symbolic confirmation that S&P ASX 200 is about to cross 7000!
Jump in to know the latest market news and trade ideas for today!
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will hold a meeting on Wednesday, April 14, at 05:00 MT.


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WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer spending fell 0.4% in November, the first decline since April, as Americans confronted a newly resurgent virus.
The decline followed a 0.3% gain in October and even bigger increases starting in May, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, a period when the country was emerging from lockdowns intended to halt the spread of COVID-19. There was a massive 12.7% decline because of that in April.
Also, personal incomes fell 1.1% in November, marking the third drop in the past four months as various government relief programs expire.
Inflation as measured by a gauge preferred by the Federal Reserve showed a modest 1.1% gain in November, well below the Fed's 2% target. The benign inflation readings will give the Fed leeway to continue providing support to an economy that has absorbed millions of people who suddenly unemployed as businesses shut down or lay off workers.
Economists, however, fear that weak spending by Americans will slow economic growth in coming months. Congress passed a $900 billion pandemic rescue package Monday, but President Donald Trump attacked the measure the following day as insufficient with direct payments to Americans.
Consumer spending accounts for around 70% of economic activity so even small declines can weigh heavily on economic growth.
It is unknown if Trump will sign the measure, which as been fought over for months, as his presidency expires.
Without more government help, the economy could be crippled, and economists say the pullback on spending by Americans last month could be a harbinger of worse days to come as a resurgent coronavirus leads to more shutdowns.
COVID-19 has killed more than 318,000 Americans and counting.
“A rapidly worsening health situation, weakening income, depleted savings for lower income families and cooler weather ed consumers to slam their wallets shut in November,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at Oxford Economics. “The economy is entering 2021 with very little dynamism.”
The government reported Tuesday that the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, grew at a record 33.4% annual rate from July through September, rebounding from a record fall in the second quarter.
But the concern is that growth could slow significantly in the current quarter and some analysts belief without further congressional support, GDP could dip back into negative territory in the first quarter of 2021.
The 1.1% fall in personal incomes reflected the fact that government transfer payments continued to fall sharply in November as more unemployed Americans exhausted their unemployment benefits.
Martin Crutsinger, The Associated Press


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Looks familiar? Yes? That’s because this is the same i8 supercar Tom Cruise took around the streets of Mumbai in Mission Impossible 4. The only difference is that this is the new i8 Concept Spyder and it only hints at the car inching closer towards production. Audi has already announced that their R8 E-Tron electric supercar will be launched by this year end and from the looks of it, BMW is hinting at a real production run of this electric supercar.
This hybrid supercar is powered by a 131 hp electric motor upfront, driving the front wheels, coupled to a mid-mounted 1.5-litre turbocharged three-pot motor that powers the rear wheels with 223 hp. The combined power output is nearly 354 hp and a torque figure of 56 kgm, which results in a 0-100 kph run in less than 5 seconds and a top speed of 250 kph! Impressive! Even more impressive is the fact that this car, despite the performance, will manage nearly 33 kpl, according to the EPA cycle. The best of both worlds, eh? Courtesy extensive use of high-performance lightweight materials and a near 50:50 weight distribution, we expect handling to be right up there. The future doesn’t look so bad after all, does it?


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Recent numbers show construction jobs on the rise after a long drought for the industry; and according to Bloomberg Buisnessweek, the boost is due to both discretionary remodeling on the part of homeowners and increased in “fix-up” work solicited by new buyers eager to customize their homes. With existing home sales up by 4.3% as of January 2012, the latter group is growing in size – leading to a renewed interest in solar power savings as one of the best renovation ideas on the horizon. While there are plenty of exciting options out there for individuals with an eye on home improvement, industry experts agree that solar power is the wave of the future. With incredible potential for environmental and economic savings alike, solar panels are a sure bet for budget and eco-friendly renovation this spring.
After decades of defining high-end real estate in terms of size and scale, today’s affluent homeowners are becoming increasingly attracted to the lure of so-called “sensibly sized” housing, according to a report published in Forbes magazine. By trading in sprawling estates for smaller spaces, individuals can enjoy not only a more sociable living environment and increased energy and utilities savings, but a boost in discretionary income for custom renovations, remodels and interior design elements as well. This trend, known as luxury downsizing, is especially popular among empty nesters who find themselves ready to shake off the responsibilities of maintaining a large home without compromising their current standard of living; and it opens up a new realm of creative possibility for those who have always dreamed of expressing their unique style and taste or indulging their desire for technological efficiency through the amenities and design elements of their home.
Business is looking up for the residential construction sector, according to recent data from the Wall Street Journal; and with spending up by 1.8% as of November 2011, there would appear to be new momentum behind residential building projects moving into the New Year. With an eye to the hottest design and home remodeling trends of 2012, the timing couldn’t be better – and this year, homeowners looking to make a change for greater sustainability, energy efficiency, cost savings or personal luxury will have plenty of exciting options and inspirations to choose from.


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Volusia-Flagler area auto dealers saw a slight dip in sales in April but held their own thanks to strong manufacturers’ incentives.
What does the future hold for American consumers? As the country starts to put itself back together, we take a look at what could happen next in Volusia and Flagler counties. Read more stories in our special report, REBUILDING AMERICA.
DAYTONA BEACH — Auto dealers credit attractive manufacturers’ incentives with helping to keep consumers coming out to showrooms here during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sales of new cars and trucks dipped in Volusia and Flagler counties in April, but not as much as in other parts of the country, according to Gib Dannehower, owner of Daytona Toyota.
Dannehower tracks auto sales locally including those at competing dealerships via a market research firm.
In April, sales of new cars and trucks at all Volusia-Flagler area dealerships totaled 2,196, down slightly from 2,282 the same month a year ago. For the year to date, 9,434 new vehicles have been sold locally compared with 9,630 sold in the first months of 2019.
"I’m not hearing of any significant layoffs by any of our local dealers," he said.
"We temporarily reduced employees’ hours, but we didn’t lay anybody off," said Dannehower who also owns Palm Coast Ford and DeLand Kia.
Now that customer traffic has started to pick up again, Dannehower said his employees are back to working normal hours.
Dannehower ordered plexiglass barriers to be installed "at all points of customer contact" at his dealerships to help keep customers and employees safe from the coronavirus.
He also put up signs reminding customers to keep six feet apart, and requires employees to wear face masks when interacting with the public.
When a part-time employee at Daytona Toyota tested positive for the coronavirus in April, Dannehower quickly responded by closing his dealerships for three days for a thorough cleaning. He also ordered all employees to be tested.
He later learned the part-time employee’s initial test was faulty.
"In the end, it turned out that not a single one was positive and no employee has had any coronavirus symptoms," he said.
Glenn Ritchey, the owner and CEO of Jon Hall Chevrolet in Daytona Beach, said his sales were down slightly in April, but "May has been trending towards a very strong month."
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Jon Hall Chevrolet still wound up among the top 10 Chevy dealers in the nation for April, he proudly noted.
"We were No. 9, selling 260 new cars and trucks in April (down from 303 the same month last year)," said Ritchey.
"We were running between first and third (nationally) for much of the month, but ran out of Silverado pickup trucks (the dealership’s top-selling vehicle)," he said.
Ritchey also owns and/or co-owns several other Daytona area dealerships.
He said his dealerships have all adopted coronavirus safety measures in keeping with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations.
They include delivering vehicles to customers’ homes upon request, social distancing in the showrooms and service departments, and requiring employees to wear masks.
"We also allow customers to take test drives alone (as opposed to being accompanied by a salesperson)," Ritchey said.
Gary Yeomans is a partner in Gary Yeomans Ford Lincoln as well as several other dealerships at the Daytona International Auto Mall. He said his dealerships have held their own during the pandemic.
"Knock on wood, business so far has continued to be good," he said. "To our surprise, April ended up with some of our stores ahead of last year."
"Customers are still buying (thanks to the incentives)," Yeomans said. "The supply is getting a little bit thin, but with the manufacturers starting (production) back up again, that should be resolved fairly soon."
READ MORE: Deltona ranked No. 4 in nation for where federal stimulus checks are helping families the most


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Qualcomm announced the first processor in its new Snapdragon 700 line, which it said brings “select premium-tier features to a broader audience”.
The Snapdragon 710 Mobile Platform is positioned between the flagship Snapdragon 800 line and mid-tier Snapdragon 600 processor, which has been used in devices inlcuding Moto X4, Asus ZenFone 4, Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 6X.
Qualcomm said the silicon offers several firsts outside of its premium processors, including use of a 10nm manufacturing process, third-generation Kryo CPU, second-generation Spectra image processing, 4K HDR playback, Snapdragon X15 LTE modem and Adreno 6-series GPU.
Kedar Kondap, VP of product management for Qualcomm, described the Snapdragon 700 line as “newly defined and highly significant”.
Snapdragon 710 apparently offers up to two-times the artificial intelligence (AI) performance of Snapdragon 660. While some rivals have touted AI-specific processing units, Qualcomm’s approach is to allocate AI workloads across the CPU, GPU and DSP.
Qualcomm said its technology supports on-device AI processing of voice inputs, photography and biometrics.
The Kryo 360 CPU has six “efficiency” cores running at 1.7GHz and two “performance” cores at 2.2GHz. The Adreno 616 graphics processor renders visuals up to 35 per cent faster than the previous Adreno generation.
As always, Qualcomm said Snapdragon 710 is “much more than a processor”. It includes a Snapdragon X15 LTE modem, offering download speeds of up to 800Mb/s, with improved capacity and flexibility for Licensed Assisted Access deployments and support for 4×4 MIMO.
The modem is said to deliver clear advantages particularly where there is poor signal quality.
For camera hardware, Qualcomm Spectra 250 image sensing processor offers noise reduction, active depth sensing, slow motion video capture and 4K video capture at 40 per cent lower power. It is compatible with single cameras up to 32MP resolution and dual cameras up to 20MP.
Snapdragon 710 is already on sale and the company expects the first devices using it to be available from Q2.


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The company claims to be investing heavily in Indian films and series across all genres and for all generations
Streaming platform Netflix on Friday, rolled out its user interface in Hindi, enabling Netflix members who prefer Hindi to easily discover, access and enjoy their favourite Indian and international films and series. Netflix subscribers will be able to experience the complete Netflix experience in Hindi, from sign up to search rows, collections and payment. This new interface is available across all devices on mobile, TV and web. Delivering a great Netflix experience is as important to us as creating great content, Monika Shergill, VP-content, Netflix India, said. “We believe the new user interface will make Netflix even more accessible and better suit members who prefer Hindi,” she added.
Additionally, Netflix is experimenting with new features like the playback speed of shows and movies that it is testing currently and will soon make it available for Android users.
The streaming platform claims to be investing heavily in Indian films and series across all genres and for all generations. From Sacred Games, Bulbbul, Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai to Mighty Little Bheem, Netflix has acquired an array of diverse content to satiate the ever-growing appetite of viewers. The company recently announced a lineup of 17 new content, including Ludo, A Suitable Boy and Mismatched and the upcoming film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl which will release on August 12. Netflix members can also discover and enjoy stories from other parts of the world, such as Stranger Things, Extraction, Narcos: Mexico, The Protector, Klaus, The Witcher, and Old Guard with Hindi dubs or subtitles.
Netflix’s Hindi-language interface won’t be limited to members in India but will be available across the world, the streaming service noted. At present, Netflix is available in 26 languages including Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.


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If you are scheduled to fly out from the major metros, you might be interested in this new promotional offer from Go Air, where you can get a free meal and seat assignments on specific flights.
Tag Archives for GoAir.
Here is a roundup of the change policies for all Indian carriers applicable as of January 11, 2022, in wake of the Omicron variant spreading out across the country.
IndiGo has decided to cancel up to 20% of their flights in the coming days on the back of a 38% dip in demand over the past 2 weeks itself, arguably caused by the virus!
Both IndiGo and Go First are offering the same promotion to end the year, where you can reschedule your tickets for free if something goes wrong!
If you are scheduled to fly out from Bangalore, you might be interested in this new promotional offer from Go Air, where you can get a free meal and seat assignments on specific flights.
Go First has launched a new fare promotion where they offer 20% off for direct bookings to those who are fully-vaccinated and choose to fly with them.
Various Indian airlines are now serving up in-flight meals and sandwiches again, as they receive the go-ahead to be able to do so again.
It seems Pakistan has taken objection to the use of its airspace for flights between Srinagar and Sharjah. They have declined clearance for these flights going forward, and which is causing this flight to be operated on a longer routing now.
Mumbai Airport is splitting up the terminal operations for airlines after many months of combined operations. 5 Airlines will move their operations fully or partially to Terminal 1. Here are the details.
Delhi Airport is shuffling flights from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 for IndiGo and GoAir from July 22, 2021 onwards. Check if your flight has been affected.
SpiceJet and Go First are in cooperation where they are proactively clubbing flights to ensure that both the airlines are saving money by not operating flights that are on low loads. Here is how it works.


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Spinning off Daimler Truck has already proven a solid move to unlock value for Daimler AG shareholders, CEO Ola Kaellenius said on Friday, with the execution of its electrification strategy the next step.
Speaking hours after the luxury carmaker's truck and bus division was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Kaellenius said Daimler shares had already benefited from the decision and would continue to do so.
"With a very robust first price of the Truck side today I think that part of the equation has now been fulfilled," Kaellenius said. "Now it's all about executing our strategies and unlocking even more value in these two shares in years to come."
Daimler shares, up 33% since the spin-off was first announced in February this year, were 3.51% higher by 1252 GMT. Daimler Truck shares were at 28.7 euros compared to a debut price of 28 euros.
Sky-high stock market valuations of electric-only players like Tesla and Rivian have placed pressure on traditional automakers to prove their worth to shareholders amid growing consumer and regulatory pressure to lower emissions.
Soon to be renamed Mercedes-Benz AG, Daimler's focus is now squarely on leading the premium electric vehicle market and developing its software capabilities, with Kaellenius describing it as a "blend of a luxury car and a tech company."
The carmaker is hiring 3,000 engineers globally to develop its own operating system for electric-only vehicles, expected to hit the market from 2024.
Keeping software close to the business was a strategically important, Kaellenius said.
On other aspects of the electric vehicle value chain such as batteries and charging networks, the carmaker operates largely through a number of joint ventures with other firms including BMW, Stellantis and others.
Geographic diversity was key in areas such as battery production, the CEO said when asked whether the company would in the long-term seek to concentrate battery production in Europe.
A flexible supply chain across the board would remain key into 2022 in particular to minimise the impact of the continuing semiconductor shortage, Kaellenius said, after the carmaker reported passenger car sales more than 20% below last year's levels in October and November. Also Read:
The automotive sector is one of the largest industries contributing about 7.1% to India’s GDP and generating huge direct and indirect employment. In the Union Budget FY24, the industry has got major boost towards electric vehicle manufacturing, hydrogen fuel adoption and the changing technology mix. However, there were certain misses with regards to the GST reduction.
Satinder Bajwa, senior vice president and Head of Sales and customer care, and Harish Lalchandani, VP, Marketing, Mahindra Automotive, have quit the organisation, three people aware of the matter informed ETAuto on condition of anonymity.


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Blog: GM Ch11 - the odds are shortening
Dave Leggett | 11 May 2009
I guess it's looking increasingly likely that GM is heading for a 'quick rinse' in Chapter 11. In fact, 'increasingly likely' doesn't quite cover it. It's probably close to being inevitable at the beginning of next month, even if GM's management has a public position to maintain. Last week's GM financials were pretty bad (losing $6bn in a single quarter is going some), but that in itself isn't a deciding factor.
The problem for GM is in the increasingly messy mechanics of restructuring outside of Chapter 11. 'Debt for equity' isn't sounding too good to bondholders because there isn't much equity left after the government and UAW stakes are accounted for. It's looking like there will be quite a few 'holdouts' and that agreement will be difficult to secure by June 1.
The GM dealer network – considered by many to be bloated - might be much more easily rationalised with GM inside Chapter 11 rather than outside it. And further cost-cuts and plant closures might also be secured via bankruptcy court rather than difficult to extract UAW/CAW concessions.
As for the view that consumers will be put off from buying cars off a company that is bankrupt, the bad publicity thus far and attendant use of the b-word has probably already wrought much of that effect (GM's US sales are tanking by more than the overall market). Obama on TV insisting that it will be another short and sharp period in bankruptcy might actually reassure some and at least remove some of the uncertainty (which isn't helping).
It may just be that many inside GM are now concluding that a managed bankruptcy is becoming a less bad option than trying to stay out. GM has even moved some suppliers' payments due on June 2 forward to May 28. That will help suppliers if GM files on June 1.
But make no mistake, GM in Chapter 11 will be a much bigger deal than Chrysler. There will be a wider fallout. It will dent stock markets globally and cause the fragile confidence that the world economic outlook is actually getting slightly better to be questioned. American industry will be facing a huge wake-up call that even a still fairly new man in the White House will struggle to put a positive gloss on.
I expect CEO Fritz Henderson will have one last shot at putting the pressure on everyone to sign up to a deal and restructuring plan that keeps GM outside of bankruptcy (he's called a press conference for later today). However, he'll be making it very clear that planning for that eventuality is now in earnest. And I don't think he'll be bluffing.
It’s a bit like one of those teenage parties when the breathing is getting dangerously heavy and someone switches the lights out....
I'm starting to get a small idea of the scale of things here in China, but really, I'm only scratching the surface of this vast country....


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Kona Grill Inc., the 25-unit grill-sushi chain, said Monday it would be seeking a new president and chief executive to replace Marc A. Buehler, who is “leaving to pursue other interests.”
The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company said, in the interim, it has named company director Michael A. Nahkunst as president and CEO. Buehler had been with Kona since fall 2009.
Earlier: Kona Grill Taps Buehler as CEO
James R. Jundt, chairman of Kona Grill’s board, said in a statement: “On behalf of the board of directors and our entire organization, I want to thank Marc for his dedication and substantial contributions to Kona Grill's success. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
The company said Nahkunst, a principal with Bailiwick Capital Partners, will serve until a permanent successor is named. Nahkunst’s restaurant experience includes serving as the chief operating officer of both The Cheesecake Factory and BJ’s Restaurants and holding senior-level positions with Brinker International, the parent of Chili's Grill & Bar.
Kona Grill said it expects to take a one-time charge of about $300,000 in the second quarter related to Buehler’s departure.
For the first quarter ended March 31, Kona Grill reported a net loss of $100,000, or one cent per share, improved from a loss of $900,000, or 10 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Sales in the first quarter were $23.6 million, up 12.3 percent from the prior year. Same-store sales increased 7.6 percent from the first quarter of 2010.
Kona Grill has units in 16 states.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @ronruggless


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by Shasti Conrad
In Washington State and around the country, the coronavirus pandemic has shown us just how crucial internet access is to everyday life. We’ve relied on the internet to attend school and work and to stay connected with friends and family. It’s difficult to imagine navigating this devastating pandemic without these modern tech advancements.
Unfortunately, not everyone was able to stay connected during this challenging year. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 700,000 Washingtonians do not have an internet connection in their homes due to obstacles like a lack of affordable broadband options, and an additional 500,000 residents must rely on cell phone data plans. In King County, nearly one in four adults face internet access barriers such as the high cost of internet service plans or connected devices.Continue reading OPINION: We Must Close the Digital Wealth Divide