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SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Boku Inc (AIM: BOKU), the world’s leading independent carrier commerce and identity verification company, announced a global expansion for Boku Identity, extending its identity verification capabilities to over 60 countries in 2019. Boku Identity is trusted by leading Fortune 500 companies and has already performed over one billion user authentications across North America, Western Europe, and Asia.
Boku Identity is powered by the Boku Platform, which aggregates and harmonizes mobile network operator systems across 58 countries worldwide. By combining the Boku Platform with identity verification and authentication capabilities from previously acquired Danal Inc, Boku Identity helps global enterprises across multiple industries effectively reduce identity fraud, drive conversions, ensure compliance, and deliver a superior customer experience.
As the global digital economy continues to shift towards a mobile-first world, the need for companies to provide their users with a frictionless authentication experience has become a key pre-requisite to successfully scale their businesses. Boku Identity’s privacy-by-design and tokenized identity architecture enables global businesses to onboard and service their customers worldwide while maintaining security and user privacy.
“With Boku Identity’s global expansion, Boku continues our mission of simplifying mobile interactions between people and businesses worldwide,” said Jon Prideaux, CEO, Boku Inc. “We have carefully designed Boku Identity to provide companies flexibility in their authentication processes, empowering them with control and transparency so they never have to compromise between the security of their business operations and delivering an exceptional customer experience.”
Boku Identity is currently live in the United States and the United Kingdom, with identity verification capabilities in 42 markets and plans to extend verification coverage to more than 20 additional markets in 2019.
To learn more about Boku Inc and Boku Identity, please visit: https://www.boku.com/identity-solutions/
About Boku Inc.
Boku Inc. (AIM: BOKU) is one of the world’s leading providers of carrier commerce and mobile identity solutions. Boku's technology platform, which is linked to more than 170 mobile network operators worldwide, verifies user identity, executes payments, and provisions new services, simplifying daily mobile interactions between consumers and digital organizations.
Boku's technology platform is used in over 58 countries with over 650 million verified transactions in 2018, contributing $3.6 billion to the digital economy. Businesses that currently employ Boku’s platform to simplify sign-up, acquire new paying users and prevent fraud include global leaders such as Apple, Discover, Experian, Facebook, Fiserv, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Paypal, Sony, Spotify, Uber and Western Union.
Boku Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in London, UK, with offices in various locations globally including in the US, Mumbai, Munich, Beijing, Paris, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Taipei, and Tokyo.
To learn more about Boku Inc., please visit: https://www.boku.com
Global Director, Brand Marketing & Communications


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The African car rental industry is a viable growth industry, particularly in the long-term corporate sector. But for consumers, that means choosing carefully. Peter Frost explains.
Across the continent, driven by the continuing commodities boom, car hire has gone from strength to strength. Stiff competition means excellent pricing, at least in South Africa, and consumers can get great deals. For car hire businesses, it’s a cut-throat world – the larger centres are experiencing growth, but increasing costs are keeping profits down. In South Africa, the car hire industry is flourishing, with improvements across the board in terms of quality, standards and, crucially for consumers, price.
“2011 was an OK year, especially in South Africa, despite the global downturn,” said Paul Pauwen, General Manager of the Southern African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (SAVRALA). “Some of the figures are skewed by the Census, which needed huge numbers of cars, but overall it’s generally positive. We saw a small increase in both fleet and rental days (14,5 million).”
Perhaps, predictably, outside of Nigeria and South Africa, the biggest upturn was in Zimbabwe. Post US-dollarisation, business can at last work on a level playing field. Julian Hill, General Manager at Avis Botswana, and previously the man in charge in Zimbabwe, sees great opportunity there.
“Zimbabwe has seen massive growth in the past couple of years, coming off a very low base, of course. Things are looking significantly better, although still well down on past highs. Overall customer confidence, although not at a high, is returning to the market,” he says. Hill’s experience north of the border highlights the ‘high stakes-high return’ ethos of doing business in Africa.
“As a whole, the continent has seen completely contrasting growths depending on the country. We’ve seen massive growths in some of the emerging countries, but the cost of operating car rental, especially the upfront purchase price, differs significantly from country to country.”
Avis’s company ethos in Botswana is indicative of a growing trend in African cooperative trading, with its emphasis on local business growth, rather than the more traditional ‘strip-and-split’ profiteering of the old days. Avis’s intention to invest in the local economy and develop local skills is reaping rewards. All their vehicles are registered in Botswana and are disposed in the local market. Training of staff is vital, too, says Hill, and a significant amount is spent on every staff member.
Most challenging in parts of Africa, including Botswana and Zimbabwe, is the introduction of ‘grey’ products imported directly from the East, which have had a negative impact on traditional car rental, especially the resale of the fleet at the end of its rental life. The grey rentals issue highlights a greater concern in the formal industry. As SAVRALA’s Pauwen points out, “there is no barrier into the market for anybody with a car and an idea to start a company.” Quality is a big issue. Indeed, increased demand means a flurry of under-resourced operators coming to the market, with consequent issues for consumers, including poor back-up, inferior vehicles and broken promises on service and insurance.
The key, says Pauwen, is to choose a company that is registered with the appropriate regulatory body. In South Africa, SAVRALA represents nearly 90% of players in the industry, and checks fleet quality, referees disputes and sets standards of excellence. Consumer journalist Wendy Knowler agrees.
“There is now a lot of second-tier hire-car companies out there, trying to compete on price and cutting corners on servicing and upkeep. It’s a false economy for consumers. What good is a couple of rand or dollars off a daily rate, if you’re stuck at the side of the road in a strange part of the world with no help?”
From the car hire company’s perspective it is a challenging environment. Prices are excellent – for customers – but profits are tough to come by. Not only is South Africa highly competitive, but, as SAVRALA notes in its annual report, accidents in 2011 rose by an alarming 30% on 2010 figures. A combination of poor roads and deteriorating local driver skills is to blame, but the outcome is the same – increased costs of repairs, which cannot necessarily be passed on to the customer. The highly competitive environment means companies are always looking for something special. Finding a niche is extremely important.
“We are effectively over-traded here in South Africa,” says Pauwen, “especially at airports. Companies need to come up with clever ideas, as well as maintaining rock-solid fundamentals, if they are to succeed.”
Susan Marshall, Marketing Manager of Hertz Southern Africa concurs. “Prices have remained stagnant for the past 10 years and very little differentiates one car rental company from another – all would mention service or a slight difference in products.”
Or, as Leslie Matthews, CEO of Tempest Car Hire puts it: “Let’s be totally honest here – no matter what any competitor says about an edge over the competition – it’s very short-lived, as it’s such a competitive environment that we all match each other’s products.”
But there are differences. The fundamentals are as important as the bells and whistles. As roads deteriorate and driving becomes ever more challenging, safety is critical. Even at entry level, airbags and other passive and active safety is now all but mandatory.
Dawn-Nathan Jones, CEO of Europcar agrees. “With the global downturn, customers are opting to rent lower-group vehicles, but they’re not willing to compromise on safety. Happily, thanks to technology, safety standards have escalated in recent years, and car manufactures have increased the basic safety features in the lower category and entry-level vehicles.”
It’s a big leap. The days of cars without airbags is now a thing of the past. Far and away the most popular cars to hire are the Group B hatches. Traditionally, it’s been a segment dominated by Volkswagen and Toyota, but the Koreans have muscled in. “We’ve noted that Korean products such as Kia and Hyundai are giving the traditional models a real run for their money,” say Matthews. “They’re as reliable and now, crucially, as good to drive and as safe.”
Another evolving change in the industry that benefits customers is the online explosion, and the consequent synergy that exists between partners that wouldn’t ordinarily have come together.
“Online business makes up about 40% of our total business,” says Matthews, whose company’s branding seems to be pushing the vibey, young, trendy online generation. “Certainly, online business is thriving and it enables us to cast our net worldwide and for customers to make the best choices.”
Riding on the back of the online wave is the move towards greater partnerships. Again, Matthews: “It’s a significant shift: car rental companies’ partnerships with airlines – particularly low-cost airlines.” The beauty is that overheads can be shared and prices can come down – everybody wins.
And fusion of services goes beyond simply flying and driving. Running with ideas picked up overseas in environments where there are multiple public transport availabilities, some car hire companies are introducing complex travel solutions. Avis is leading the way with its Total Transport Solution, which includes a Point-2-Point option, namely Chauffeur Drive, Van Rental, and Coach Charter, all payable through one account. It’s part of Avis’s mobility and accessibility drive and it is working – the company again won the Sunday Times Top Brand Award last year, as well as the Business Destinations Award Car Rental Africa 2011. Wayne Duvenage, CEO of Avis puts the success down largely to keeping their eye on the ball.
“Our Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) is the only one of its kind in the industry, with over 3500 interviews conducted with customers every month (since 2003), to gauge and improve on service excellence. It’s crucial to know what our customers want and think,” he says.
Others are not standing still. Europcar was right on the money when it introduced its baggage insurance and protective window films on its premium fleet. But what really resonated was offering cycling customers the option of renting portable bicycle racks. Tempest’s decision to accept debit cards puts it at an advantage, and Hertz’s 55+ special for older customers was extremely well received.
Arguably the biggest growth sector of the industry is the long-term corporate and private hire market. Separate from leasing, it offers companies and individuals a no-fuss solution to their transport problems. Tempest’s Matthews sees big gains.
“We see people renting vehicles for long-term periods, instead of leasing or purchasing. This is an incredibly flexible arrangement for consumers and one that is set to really gain traction in the market,” he says.
SAVRALA’s Pauwen also sees the potential. “It’s all about tax really. Call it what you will, but if it makes sense to rent long-term from a tax point of view, then it’s going to happen. I see it as the big move in South African car hire in 2012.”
At ground level, ordinary customers have increased choice, better vehicles and are getting excellent rates. But there are issues. In her role as a consumer watchdog, Knowler is often approached by consumers unhappy with car hire service. In most cases she says, it is an unregistered company at fault. SAVRALA’s Pauwen agrees.
“At the association, something like 80% of complaints are about so-called fly-by-night companies. We had the case of a hired Kombi recently. It had 250 000 kilometres on the clock, the gearbox failed shortly after leaving the lot, and the company expected the driver to pay for the repair. That’s unacceptable, and reflects badly on the industry as a whole.”
Across the board, the largest companies – Avis, Hertz, Tempest, Europcar and Budget – de-fleet their vehicles at between nine and 11 months, with less than 40 000 kilometres on the clock. The industry leaders are all closely associated with larger motor companies such as the Imperial Group and Barloworld, so access to the latest models (and the feeding through of used cars into the second-hand market) is good.
If there is a complaint against a SAVRALA member, the association contacts the company and asks to ‘sort it out’, as Pauwen puts it. If this is not done to the satisfaction of the client, SAVRALA reviews the case and, if it believes there is a good case to answer, can suggest an attorney as well as a course of action.
The most common car hire complaints are the voiding of insurance and non-detection of damage at drop ‘n go facilities. As Knowler points out, few people realise that simply by driving on a dirt road in South Africa, insurance is voided.
“It’s a difficult situation, given our road network. If you’re touring the country, sometimes it’s impossible not to take to the dirt. Road works, detours, or just good old-fashioned exploration. There are options, so make sure you discuss in detail what you are covered for.”
The other issue is drop ‘n go. For ease, most car hire companies allow people to drop off their car at the airport or showroom and head to the exit gate without being present while the vehicle is checked for damage. Once the client has walked away from the car, effectively they can be charged for any damage found, even if it is incurred at a later stage.
“It’s in your best interest to check the car with the official,” says Knowler. “And do it thoroughly. I have had cases of people being called back hours later to re-sign the release form, saying damage was found after the inspection.”
Car hire in Africa is on the up, despite challenges on the horizon (e-tolling will push South African prices up and AARTO, the points-docking system on licences, set for 1 April, will impact on the industry). The wider issue of access and pricing beyond the borders of South Africa will be addressed with deeper penetration by the large operators, as long as the curse of grey imports is confronted head-on. Most crucial to the future of the industry is the need for greater regulation of the players. Bit-part operations offering sub-standard vehicles and inferior back-up service will do more damage to the industry than uninformed government policy or rising fuel costs. Address that, and the continent’s wider move to get itself mobile and moving forward looks increasingly positive. The future is rolling.

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- Online rumors in China are claiming that Alibaba billionaire Jack Ma is giving away money.
- The gifts are said to be made in honor of Lunar New Year, but authorities warn it may be a scam.
- Ma, through his companies, has previously given millions in LNY gifts to customers.
Chinese seniors are lining up at banks across the country after rumors swirled online that reclusive billionaire Jack Ma was giving away pieces of his fortune, UPI reported,
Many began lining up at banks across Fuzhou, in the Jiangxi Province, after a WeChat group claimed that Ma was giving away 200 Chinese yuan — the equivalent of $30 — to anyone 60 or older who could show proof of age.
The gift was said to be in honor of Lunar New Year, which began on February 11 and is observed until February 17. During that time, the country generally shuts down, and gifts of money are exchanged in special red envelopes meant to bring prosperity in the new year.
But authorities warned seniors not to trust rumors about a potential gift, and the Fuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau issued an emergency notice warning citizens of a possible scam.
Ma has in the past offered special deals and promotions during Lunar New Year, largely through Alibaba and its subsidiary companies. In 2014, Ma's Alibaba issued 99,999 online coupons to users via WeChat, worth around 990,000 yuan, or $153,000. In 2016, Alipay, the mobile payment branch of Alibaba, gave away US$120 million in a TV promotion. And in 2018, Alibaba offered a "digital red envelope" AR game, paying out around US$820 million to customers.
Ma, the founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, has scarcely been seen in public over the past three months, though he was reportedly spotted golfing at a luxury golf resort on the island province of Hainan last week.


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Glaxo Wellcome yesterday lost a legal judgment in favour of the Inland Revenue, which is now free to pursue the company for hundreds of millions of pounds of back tax.
However, the drugs giant said the High Court ruling was only on procedural issues and was not indicative of a tax liability on the company's part.
The company has already made substantial provisions, estimated to be up to pounds 400m, against an unfavourable outcome of the case.
A spokesman said: "The judge was quite clear. He made no judgment on Glaxo's liability to corporation tax."
The case was brought by Glaxo to test certain issues surrounding transfer pricing, in particular whether the Inland Revenue was allowed to review transactions by group companies prior to 30 June 1986. Transfer pricing is a technique used to "move" profits from a country with high corporate taxation to one with lower taxes.
A spokeswoman for the Inland Revenue said: "Obviously we're pleased we won - the fact that we won would seem to suggest we've been right in the way we've applied the law for the last 40 years." She said the parties were discussing dates for appeal hearings.
The case dates from issues stretching back to before 1980 and is not expected to hit profits this year. Although Glaxo Wellcome shares fell 18p to 857p yesterday, part of that related to disappointment over Wednesday's research briefing by the company.
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Ax Sharma, writing for Bleeping Computer:
This month, the developer behind the popular npm package ‘node-ipc’ released sabotaged versions of the library in protest of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. Newer versions of the ‘node-ipc’ package began deleting all data and overwriting all files on developer’s machines, in addition to creating new text files with “peace” messages. [...]
The way the Node community works, just blindly slurping in other people’s package updates without knowing what’s in them, continues to boggle my mind.


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Chinese global consumer electronics brand TCL Corp has launched TCL 562 smartphone, two TV models in P1 series — one curved and one flat Ultra HD — and two TV models in D2900 series for Indian consumers. All the devices will be available on Amazon.
“Our entry into the smartphones and television category in India is a strategic move that reinforces our commitment to lead technology and innovation,” said Regional Director, TCL India, Praveen Valecha.
Rs 10,990 TCL 562 smartphone features 5.5-inch full HD IPS display, octa-core Helio P10 MT6755M processor, 3GB RAM and runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.
The device has 32GB internal memory, 13MP auto-focus rear camera with LED dual tone flash and a 5MP front camera with wide view angle and houses 2960mAh battery.
The Rs 37,990 48-inch Curved full-HD smart TV comes in a sleek design and has functions like screen mirroring, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi direct and App Store.
TCL D2900 series includes two models one in 40-inch (priced at Rs 20,990) and another in 32-inch (priced at Rs 13,990) screen sizes, and are equipped with ASIC processor, two USB ports and HDMI port.
TCL 43-inch flat Ultra HD TV is priced at Rs 31,990.


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On March 28, the Minister of Finance introduced Budget 2023, aptly titled a “Made-in-Canada Plan”. A key trade-related theme resonates throughout the Budget: futureproofing the Canadian economy to respond to realignment of global trade patterns.
Budget 2023 highlights new policy based initiatives and legislative amendments to address:
- The global race to net-zero economies and “industries of tomorrow”;
- “Friendshoring” economies to limit dependence on authoritarian regimes for critical goods;
- Domestic supply chain weaknesses;
- Forced labour in Canadian supply chains; and
- Circumvention of economic sanctions.
An overview of Budget 2023’s impact on the Canadian trade landscape are outlined below.
Budget 2023 proposes amendments to the Customs Tariff, which seek to address the realignment of global trade patterns and Canadian values on responsible business conduct. The Government has proposed:
- Indefinitely withdrawing the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) tariff for imports of goods of Russian and Belarusian origin. As drafted, the Customs Tariff, only permits the government to withdraw the MFN tariff for a circumscribed period of time. This amendment will result in the application of the 35% General Tariff of goods of Russian and Belarusian origin for the foreseeable future.
- Renewing Canada’s General Preferential Tariff (GPT) and Least Developed Country Tariff (LDCT) until the end of 2034, which will allow developing countries to continue their preferential market access to the Canadian economy on terms more favourable than the MFN tariff. These tariffs were set to expire at the end of 2023 and have been in place since the 1970s and 1980s, respectively.
- Creating a new General Preferential Tariff Plus (GPT+) to incentivize countries to adhere to international standards on human rights, labour conditions, gender equality, and climate change to gain access to the Canadian market. This tariff was first proposed in a 2022 consultation issued by the Department of Finance. Canada is attempting to align its non-reciprocal tariff programs with trade and development policy objectives, like those pursued under Canada’s FTAs. Canada appears to seek to export Canadian values on responsible business conduct by creating GPT+ for eligible developing countries that meet international standards on labour rights and environmental protection, such as offering preferential tariff to goods that are not currently subject to the GPT (apparel, footwear and ships), which are otherwise subject to MFN duties of 25%. Eligibility for GPT+ could be withdrawn if there is evidence that an eligible country no longer meets criteria, for example, the possibility that use of forced labour is used in the production of goods.
Budget 2023 predicts that customs duties will increase by 18.8% in 2022 to 2023 due to the repeal of the Certain Goods Remission Order (COVID-19) on personal protective equipment and other medical goods. It also predicts strong growth in imports of at least 4.4%. Additionally, it proposes to amend the Customs Act to permit the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to change how it processes low-risk travelers entering Canada. Travelers have faced long delays when arriving at Canadian airports as global travel has returned to pre-pandemic levels. It appears that the proposed amendments are aimed at reducing wait times for travelers to clear Canada Customs.
Prohibiting Forced Labour in Canadian Supply Chains
Budget 2023 doubles-down on eliminating forced labour from Canadian supply chains. The Government intends to “eradicate forced labour from Canadian supply chains to strengthen the import ban on goods produced using forced labour” by 2024. Although the Customs Tariff was amended in 2022, pursuant to Canada’s obligations under the USMCA, to prohibit the importation of goods mined or manufactured with forced labour, the CBSA has been slow to enforce under the tariff classification re-determination scheme available under the Customs Act. The Government has not specified any earmarked funds, increased hiring of CBSA officials, training programs, or other policy changes to enhance enforcement of the existing prohibition. The Government also made an ambiguous commitment to ensuring that existing legislation (targeting forced labour) “fits within the government’s overall framework to safeguard supply chains”. Whether this foreshadows legislative or policy changes as to how goods are scrutinized for being manufactured with forced labour has yet to be seen.
Given this commitment, the Government may continue to legislate on forced labour once Bill S-211 is passed into law. The Bill is currently in its third reading before the House of Commons and politicians have scrutinized it for failing to do enough to address forced labour in Canadian supply chains. The Bill is supply chain transparency legislation and does not create a positive due diligence obligation on corporations to root out forced labour in their supply chain. Although there does not appear to be political will for a positive due diligence law in the House of Commons at this time, the Government could introduce due diligence legislation in the future to action its commitment to “eradicate forced labour”.
A focus of Budget 2023 is prohibiting economic sanctions evasion/circumvention by amending the existing legislative framework in place to report and criminalize money laundering. The Budget announces amendments to the Criminal Code the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) and has foreshadowed new regulatory obligations for the financial sector to “report sanctions-related information” to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC). Currently, certain reporting entities in the financial sector have a continuing duty to determine and disclose whether they have property owned or controlled by or on behalf of a designated person. Currently, disclosure is made to the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and not to FINTRAC.
The Budget also recommits to Budget 2022’s proposal to implement a public beneficial ownership registry for corporations incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act by the end of 2023. Unlike Budget 2022, the Government now emphasizes the importance of a beneficial ownership registry to combat sanctions circumvention: shell companies can conceal ownership of property and when enforcement agencies cannot determine true ownership shell corporations can be used to evade sanctions. Additionally, the Government has recommitted to Budget 2022’s proposal to establish a Canadian Financial Crimes Agency. The reference to “financial crime” has been scoped to target money laundering charges, prosecutions and convictions, and asset forfeiture. The Government commits to providing the proposed agency’s mandate in its 2023 fall economic and fiscal update. Whether the agency will play any role in enforcing Canada’s economic sanctions, which are currently enforced by the CBSA and the RCMP, remains to be seen.
Strengthening Trade: Canadian Supply Chains, Imports, and Exports
Budget 2023 highlights the Government’s commitments to strengthen trade by investing in Canadian infrastructure in strategic trade corridors (ports, airports, railways, and highways) and to mitigate risks and increase opportunities for Canadian exports.
Moving goods within Canada is a necessary element to increasing Canadian exports and distributing imported goods throughout the country. The Government has committed to continue to strengthen Canadian transportation by establishing a “Transportation Supply Chain Office” to respond to transportation disruptions and coordinate to increase capacity, efficiency, and reliability of transportation infrastructure. It has also earmarked $25 million to develop transportation supply chain data to inform future infrastructure planning, and it has proposed legislative amendments aimed at compelling data sharing by shippers using federally regulated transportation services and extensions to interswitching limits on rail lines in the prairie provinces.
Budget 2023 also highlights the Government’s past and ongoing efforts to mitigate risks and increase opportunities for Canadian exports. The Government outlines its efforts to lobby the U.S. government to create benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for Canadian auto-manufacturers and the Canadian critical minerals sector. Under the IRA, U.S. consumers purchasing “North American” electric vehicles are eligible for tax credits. The tax credits equally apply to electric vehicles undergoing Canadian production, and Canadian sourced critical minerals and batteries used to manufacture these vehicles. Coupled with the benefits under the IRA, the Government appears to seek to increase critical mineral and battery production, and perhaps exports, by supporting the extraction and processing of critical minerals through the “Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit”. The credit proposes a refundable credit equal to 30% the cost of investments in new machinery and equipment used to extract, process or recycle key critical minerals: lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, copper, and rare earth elements. Increased Canadian extraction of critical minerals and production of batteries will reduce Canada’s reliance on imports from other nations that are key to the green energy transition.
Additionally, the Government committed to providing $57.5 million over five years to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to establish a foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccine bank for Canada, and develop response plans. This initiative seeks to mitigate risks of a Canadian FMD outbreak, which would impact Canada’s exports of the infected livestock. This commitment follows Japan lifting its restrictions on imports of Canadian beef, and precedes planned tariff rate reductions on Canadian beef products that come into force on April 1 pursuant to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Budget 2023 commits to make efforts to continue to reduce exemptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, which governs trade amongst Canadian provinces. Specifically, the Government commits to facilitate meetings on mutual recognition of regulatory standards with the goal of improving the movement of goods and services within Canada.


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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday declined to launch an enforcement action against the Salt River Project over its residential solar rules, clearing the way for possible court action.
The decision stems from a petition filed in January by Vote Solar and several SRP customers arguing that the public power utility’s rooftop solar rules were discriminatory, in violation of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, known as PURPA.
The petition alleged that SRP makes customers with solar panels pay discriminatory fixed charges and reimburses them at rates less than the Tempe, Arizona-based utility’s full avoided cost.
In a concurring statement, FERC Commissioner Mark Christie said he was persuaded by arguments from SRP, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the American Public Power Association and other trade groups that the dispute belongs in state court.
“Petitioners challenge SRP’s rate design as applied to retail customers with rooftop solar [photovoltaic] panels located behind-the-meter,” Christie said. “Such challenges to retail rates are subject to exclusive state jurisdiction. Moreover, petitioners have not established that they are entitled to PURPA rights for their behind-the-meter rooftop solar panels.”
However, FERC Commissioner Allison Clements said the claims being made by residential customers does not automatically place the dispute under state jurisdiction.
“While states and relevant non-jurisdictional entities such as SRP have retail rate authority, PURPA provides for federal jurisdiction over a utility or retail authority’s implementation of PURPA’s obligation to purchase from and sell to qualifying facilities,” Clements said. “Further, it is clear that behind-the-meter rooftop solar arrays owned or leased by residential customers can be qualifying facilities.”
The dispute can go straight to court without the need for a rehearing request at FERC, according to David Bender, an Earthjustice attorney who represents Vote Solar and others in the case.
The Southern Environmental Law Center is pursuing a similar PURPA case in court against the Alabama Public Service Commission. SELC contends that Alabama Power’s rooftop solar rules violate PURPA.


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AN ELECTED official is pushing for the promotion of pedal power in her constituency.
Councillor Joan Paterson is so impressed with Grangemouth Transition Town’s Bicycle Library and Bikes for All initiatives she even teamed up with Helix project director Mike King recently to ride a tandem through the town to highlight the environmentally friendly schemes.
Councillor Paterson said: “This makes sense and ticks all four ‘F’ boxes - it helps fitness, it’s fun, it’s good for the finances with the price of petrol these days and it’s good for an environmentally friendly future.”
The Bicycle Library aims to give the community access to bicycles for use around the town, without having to buy them, while Bikes For All is looking to sell bikes, refurbished to nearly new status by Dawson Bike Club, at cost price so more people can start using this green and healthy form of transportation.
To view bikes or get more information about either scheme visit www.gransition.com or drop into the Transition Town office at 78 La Porte Precinct.


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Francis Wang’ombe Kariuki, the Director General of Competition Authority of Kenya, will step down as head of the competition agency in January 2023 when his term comes to an end. Mr Wang’ombe Kariuki has served as DG of the agency since the agency became operational under the 2010 Competition Act of Kenya.
During his tenure, the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) increased its focus on enforcement against violations of antitrust laws, particularly restrictive trade practices (RTPs), abuse of dominance and cartel behaviour. For example, the Authority conducted several investigations and dawn raids on undertakings and the consequences for breach were severe.
Kenya has the oldest competition regime as it enacted its first comprehensive competition law in 1988. The CAK is the main enforcement agency in Kenya and has a broad reach with authority to perform – in certain cases — most of the standard enforcement activities including investigation, prosecution, adjudication, research and advocacy. It is important to note that competition and consumer protection law is important for the promotion of trade liberalisation as it will curb incidents of illegal practices and provide equity in the business environment.
Director General Wang’ombe Kariuki has spearheaded competition reforms not only at the local level, but also at the regional level. During his tenure, the CAK became one of the most active competition agencies in Africa and its responses towards COVID-19 were regarded as important benchmark for emerging competition agencies in the world.
For instance, many of the competition agencies in Africa were not prepared for pandemics, or had not contemplated how they could regulate competition during crisis. However, during the global crisis, the Competition Authority of Kenya stepped up and took major decisions in order to ensure that the markets continued to function effectively and consumers were not exploited by unscrupulous businesses taking advantage of the pandemic.
Key Cases CAK Handled During Covid Period
For instance, the Competition agency cracked its whip on a local supermarkets for alleged price-gouging of hand sanitizer during the Covid-19 pandemic.
While speaking at the recent CAK Symposium, Director General Wangombe Kariuki noted that the authority through investigations, determined that the retail chain had excessively increased the prices of hand sanitisers.
The CAK then ordered the Supermarket to refund all its customers who purchased that particular sanitizer brand after investigations were concluded and they were found to be in contravention of the Competition Act No.12 of 2010.
“That’s a case that helped us manage the price volatility then.” Noted Wang’ombe Kariuki during the recent CAK Symposium held in Nairobi.
According to Mr Wang’ombe, the big challenge for regulators is to design regulations for the future that are clear in their purpose, are designed to maximise the chances of achieving what was intended, and are adaptable to risks and changing circumstances
He advises regulatory institutions to build internal research units as a way to improve the effectiveness of the enforcements.
In terms of cartel enforcement, Mr Wang’ombe noted that the CAK investigated and concluded up-to five cartel cases in Kenya within a period of five years. This essentially means that the CAK took one year to investigate and conclude a cartel case compared to the global average of two to three years per cartel case.
Mr Wang’ombe argued that instead of enforcing regulations by putting people in jail, he says regulators should push for behaviour change as a sustainable alternative.
Finally, Mr Wang’ombe says that regulations need to be designed to address new forms of digital behaviour. He says that regulating digital data versus other commodities needs to be reimagined as there is an implicit assumption that physical products sold on a digital platform are covered by current regulatory regimes.
He argues that regulators should work jointly because the current lack of an explicit cross-sectoral consumer protection body in any leaves consumers exposed to the digital exploitation of rules where products and services fall between sectors.


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Those pesky economists are always blaming "market forces" for everything.
Take $120 oil, rationed rice, or any of the other headline-grabbing commodities whose prices have spiked this year.
The Wall Street Journal's monthly survey of professional prognosticators says fundamental market conditions rather than nefarious speculators are behind the run-up, and they're blaming the usual suspects.
From the survey:
Fifty-one percent of the respondents said demand from China and India was the prime factor in soaring energy prices, and 40% said demand was the chief contributor to rising food costs. Constrained supply was cited second most-often; 20% blamed supply problems for higher food prices and 15% for increasing energy prices.
Still, 11 percent did say prices are soaring amid the creation of a speculative bubble. In some ways if that was the majority opinion, it would be a reason to cheer. Speculators driving markets to unsustainable levels would probably mean a bust was on the horizon, a frightening thought for commodity investors but better news for consumers (not to mention millions of people in poor nations facing food shortages). Instead, look for a prolonged bout of higher prices.
Other interesting tidbits from the report:


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Krystalo writes: Belkin on Thursday announced plans to acquire Cisco’s Home Networking Business Unit, including its products, technology, employees, and even the well-known Linksys brand. Belkin says it plans to maintain the Linksys brand and will offer support for Linksys products as part of the transaction, financial details for which were not disclosed. This should be a relatively smooth transition that won’t affect current customers: Belkin says it will honor all valid warranties for current and future Linksys products. After the transaction closes, Belkin will account for approximately 30 percent of the US retail home and small business networking market.
Today's scientific question is: What in the world is electricity?
And where does it go after it leaves the toaster?
-- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"


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NEWTOWN - A spokesperson with the U.S. Postal Service said in the course of less than 24 hours, thousands of people worldwide have mailed condolence letters and packages to those affected by the mass shooting.
Officials say due to the amount of mail received, they have designated a specific PO box for all of the condolences. Postal service workers say they expect to receive thousands more.
To send general or specific condolences, mail letters to: P.O. Box 3700, Newtown, CT 06740.


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Brad Stone's new book on Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com has been widely praised since its release last month. One reviewer who wasn't a fan: Bezos' wife.
In a review posted Monday on the book's Amazon page, MacKenzie Bezos accused Stone of printing "numerous factual inaccuracies" and presenting "a lopsided and misleading portrait of the people and culture at Amazon."
Her verdict? One star.
Ms. Bezos cited just one alleged inaccuracy specifically -- a detail in an anecdote about the company's founding -- but added: "Everywhere I can fact check from personal knowledge, I find way too many inaccuracies, and unfortunately that casts doubt over every episode in the book."
She called Stone's reporting "unbalanced," saying he had underplayed positive accounts of the company from employees.
Craig Berman, Amazon's vice president for global communications, confirmed the authenticity of the review. Berman said Stone "had every opportunity to thoroughly fact check and bring a more balanced viewpoint to his narrative, but he was very secretive about the book and simply chose not to."
The book is titled The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. It portrays Mr. Bezos as brilliant but ruthless, fostering an intensely competitive atmosphere and subjecting his subordinates to withering tirades.
"Bezos is one of these tech executives with incredibly high standards and very little patience for those who don't meet them," Stone said Monday. "It allows the company to operate at a pace that exceeds most other companies and makes it very difficult to work there, but it's also why the company succeeded."
Stone, a journalist with Bloomberg Businessweek, said the hundreds of interviews he conducted for the book with current and former employees included "plenty of people who don't have nice things to say about Amazon" and "plenty of people who love everything about it." He added that he would "happily" update future editions of the book if he discovered inaccuracies.
"My job as an author was to balance the often wildly disparate perspectives to get at the truth," he said. "I didn't come to it with any agenda other than to tell the missing story of one of the defining companies of our age."
Stone said Jeff Bezos declined to be interviewed for the book because he thought it was "too early" to reflect on the company. But Stone was able to draw on roughly a dozen interviews he had conducted with Bezos over the past decade, as well as discussions with senior executives who Stone said spoke with Bezos' blessing.
Despite Ms. Bezos' pan, The Everything Store was still averaging 4.6 stars out of 5 as of Monday evening.


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The Fear of Uncertainty Stinging Clear in the NAND Market
Initial reports for the 2014 NAND market are mixed so far. The good news is coming from the growing demand for enterprise solid state drives (SSDs), smartphones/tablets and other end devices, all of which utilize NAND flash memory. According to TrendForce, NAND flash demand is anticipated to hit 36% this year. However, the bad news is that consumer-level SSD demand and pricing still remain unpredictable.
Read more: The Fear of Uncertainty Stinging Clear in the NAND Market
Automotive Semi Solutions at CES and Detroit Auto Show – Setting the stage for high demand
The past couple of weeks were filled with news from the two hot January tradeshows, International CES 2014 and North American International Auto Show 2014. What links these shows even more tightly together than in years past, is the role that information and connectivity are playing in our daily lives. The lines are blurring – or converging is likely a better perspective - between our consumer electronics (CE), our business computing, and our personal information needs for logistics, entertainment and safety. The end result is a new competitive playing field focused around human-machine interfaces (HMI) with solutions that partner electronics and automotive designers, as auto OEMs vie to meet our demands and win our purchases.
Read more: Automotive Semi Solutions at CES and Detroit Auto Show – Setting the stage for high demand


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(AllHipHop News) Los Angeles rapper The Game is partnering with G FarmaBrands for a new line of marijuana-based products. Game’s “G Stiks” and “G Drinks” will be available in California and Washington.
G Drinks come in original, pink, and strawberry lemonade flavors, and they will be infused with G FarmaBrands’ Liquid Gold cannabis oil. The cannabis cigarettes G Stiks come in six different blends.
“These guys are the pioneers of innovation in the cannabis industry,” stated The Game. “I’m excited to help raise awareness for G Stiks and G Drinks in all territories that we are available.”
The Documentary 2 album creator joins other music artists such as Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, and Wiz Khalifa as part of the growing legal cannabis business. Marijuana stores in Washington state reportedly make a total of $1.4 million per day in sales.


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Women were 151 percent more likely than men to watch “lesbian” videos, according to Pornhub, which boasts 92 million daily visitors. The most searched term on online pornography sites this year? "Lesbian,"
Starbucks says it is finally going to block customers from watching porn in stores after years of pressure
• Starbucks is rolling out a new tool meant to stop customers from watching pornography and viewing other explicit content in stores in 2019, the company told Business Insider. • The coffee giant has under
Once, the fight against pornography was the beating heart of the American culture war. Now porn is a ballooning industry — and maybe a harmful one —with no real opponents. What happened? The Year Was Republicans


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China's economy continues to grow faster than other large economies, but a fresh string of data shows that growth is currently losing steam.
GDP growth increased to 7.5% in the second quarter compared to 7.4% in the first quarter of 2014, but industrial production figures as well as imports and monetary growth in August point in the direction of lower economic activity.
Top managers of Nordic and German subsidiaries in China confirm the picture of a less vibrant economy in SEB's latest China Financial Index.
Four of ten companies have a positive view of business conditions while approximately an equal amount of companies have a neutral view. One of five companies now have a negative view of the business climate, and almost no companies have a very positive view.
Still, almost half of the respondents expect increasing profits in terms of their Chinese subsidiaries, while four of ten companies do not expect changes.
Around 15% expect profits to fall in the coming six months, which is an increase from the last survey. Expansion plans are only marginally affected: more than seven out of ten companies plan for further investments while there are fewer companies that plan no investments.
Recruitment plans fall slightly, but four of ten companies will continue to add employees in China.
More companies than previously, four out of ten, view lower customer demand as the largest concern in this survey. Fewer companies view competition as the major concern while more companies than earlier worry about customers' payment ability and foreign exchange risks.
"On an aggregated level, we see that companies are less optimistic than in the last survey, and that is consistent with economic statistics the last couple of weeks," says Fredrik Hähnel, Head of SEB in Shanghai and author of the report.
Even if the Chinese economy grew faster than other leading economies, there are a number of risks for further deceleration in growth. Industrial production fell to 6.9% in August, the lowest figure in six years, and China's official purchasing manager's index fell to 51.1 in August from 51.7 in July. Inflation has also continued to fall.
The Chinese government has so far preferred to launch smaller stimulus packages towards specific industries to avoid further imbalances in the economy.
Meanwhile, analysts expect more aggressive stimulus packages and a looser monterary policy to avoid a further fall in growth. More Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) cuts for banks may be needed in order to make banks more willing to extend loans, and should inflation fall further, one should not exclude the possibility of an interest rate cut in 2015.
"While overall foreign direct investment (FDI) into China fell in the last couple of months, companies in this survey say they will continue to invest in line with earlier plans," Hähnel continues.
Four out of ten companies view a fall in customer demand as the biggest concern, which is higher than in the last survey (March 2014). Fewer companies than perviously view competition as the main worry, but more companies are concerned about customer payment ability and foreign exchange rate risks.
Seven out of ten companies plan for salary increases of 5-8% while one in five plan for 3-4% salary increases. Only 14% expect salary increases to be 9-10%, which is considerably lower than in previous surveys.
"It is also interesting to see so many companies worrying about getting paid in China, which is further confirmed by a number of our customers recently reporting that they increasingly receive bankers acceptance drafts as payments," says Hähnel.
China's central bank, the PBOC, has increased the band within which the renminbi can move against the US dollar daily, and it even let the currency weaken against the dollar earlier in the year.
"This has led to a larger focus on foreign exchange risks, which we also see among our clients who hedge their foreign exchange exposures," notes Hähnel.
Almost six out of ten companies expect the renminbi to strengthen against the US dollar in the coming six months while 35% think the exchange rate will be stable. Four out of ten companies believe interest rates will go up, while half of respondents anticipate that rates will remain the same.


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Jeff Bezos, founder, and the Chief Executive Officer, is about to step down later in 2021. He will still remain as the Chairman of the largest global e-commerce firm in the world. He will be handing over the duties to a lieutenant who has been working in the Amazon Web Services for a long time now. The fourth and final quarter announcement of the firm’s earnings announced this news. The earnings were beyond the expectations of several researchers’ expectations.
The replacement of Jeff Bezos will be Andy Jassy, who has been working with the firm since 1997. The news follows widespread scrutiny ever since the pandemic has struck. Ever since the lockdown essentials were announced, several people have been depending on the e-commerce firm and several others who have been gaining widely. Lawmakers have expressed their concerns about how online business services like Amazon have power over such economic crisis periods, especially over the retailers.
Jeff Bezos’s Successor Jeff Jassy
Jeff Bezos’s popularity does outdo that of Jassy’s. However, the latter has spoken on several controversial subjects before. Two years ago, Jassy widely criticized then President Trump for mingling politics with bidding processes of the Defense Department’s major contract. That contract finally went to another tech-giant, Microsoft. He has also popularly defended the facial recognition tech of Amazon. He backed that the government should take the support of such technologies that are advanced in order to keep citizens of the country as safe as possible.
Jeff Bezos’s successor also said that he knew of the abuse of AWS Technology. The firm also followed on that and eventually fired its hosting services to the social media application, Parler. The app is popularly known among rightists. It was fired on the grounds of advocating violence, following its use after the Capitol riots.


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Electric car firm Tesla has been ordered to keep its main plant in the US closed, as California grapples with a coronavirus outbreak.
Chief executive Elon Musk had told staff “limited” production would resume on Friday at the Fremont factory, near San Francisco, according to CNBC.
But Alameda County says this could lead to a spike in coronavirus cases.
Nearly 9,500 cases have been reported in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with 342 virus-related deaths.
Since 23 March, all but “basic operations” have been suspended at the plant because of “shelter in place” orders enacted in the county. The factory employs more than 10,000 workers and makes about 415,000 vehicles every year.
California’s government has eased some restrictions around the state this week, allowing businesses to resume operations. But several Bay Area counties, including Alameda, have issued their own criteria for businesses to open up, which take precedent.
“Tesla has been informed that they do not meet those criteria and must not reopen,” Alameda County said in a statement. “We welcome Tesla’s proactive work on a reopening plan so that once they fit the criteria to reopen, they can do so in a way that protects their employees and the community at large.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
Mr Musk has drawn controversy for his opposition to coronavirus restrictions, and his promotion of unproven treatments for the virus.
In a series of tweets last week, the tech billionaire said “the coronavirus panic is dumb” and “FREE AMERICA NOW”.
It comes as Tesla has suspended operations at its plant in the Chinese city of Shanghai, according to Bloomberg. It had previously closed the factory as a temporary measure when the virus was at its peak in China.
The company reported a net profit in the first three months of this year, and its stock has risen to nearly $820 (£669; €756). But analysts expect the coronavirus pandemic will adversely affect its earnings in 2020.


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This year has brought plenty of downbeat retail headlines, so it’s great to be able to highlight some good news – plans to revive the Austin Reed brand.
Edinburgh Woollen Mill owner Philip Day, who bought Austin Reed out of administration earlier this year, has unveiled plans for a relaunch.
He wants to open 50 branches by early 2018.
Day, who tends to keep an under-the-radar personal profile, has a good track record of breathing new life into retail brands that looked as if they had gone the way of all flesh.
Over the next 18 months he expects to create 2,000 new jobs as his group, including fascias such as Peacocks and Ponden Home, expands.
Day has proved himself adept at restoring the appeal of the high street names he’s snapped up by refocusing on their traditional core customers – often people who are overlooked by retailers that tend to chase the latest trend.
There’s surely a lesson there as some other established names seek to rekindle their relationships with shoppers.
The day brought further upbeat excitement as etailer Missguided unveiled a bricks-and-mortar store in Westfield Stratford City.
Also, the Pensions Regulator said she was hopeful of striking a deal with former BHS owner Sir Philip Green, we had the Autumn Statement from Chancellor Philip Hammond, and agency staff at an Arcadia warehouse threatened to strike on Cyber Monday.
Quote of the day
“Some changes will provide a bit more room to breathe for cash-strapped consumers on low and middle incomes”
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson on the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement
Today in numbers
New hourly minimum wage for over-25s from April 2017
Number of UK store openings planned over next year by newly arrived Polish kitchenware retailer Duka
Retail spending trends driven by babies, cats and dogs will be be in the spotlight tomorrow when Mothercare and Pets at Home both update the City.
George MacDonald, Executive Editor


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Tosca Musk says “unity” is her family’s strength.
Different constituencies cross-pollinating is key to approach.
The Fenty Beauty campaign marked Aden’s first modeling gig.
The selfie looks to be not only the favorite, but the the most legally sound option for celebrities and influencers.
Classes will be led by Rob Piela, creator and owner of Gotham Gym, along with guest hosts.
IMG is working with select designers and partners who are interested in gaining access to high-end consumers to further their brand and business goals.
Berlin runway show platform closes 10-year run as partners Mercedes-Benz and IMG part ways.


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Toyota’s new-generation Supra hit local showrooms late last year powered by a 250kW/500Nm 3.0-litre straight-six engine, but now the brand is rolling out a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder version for the European market.
Pumping out 190kW of power and 400Nm of torque to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission means the base Supra will accelerate from zero to 100km/h in 5.2 seconds – just 0.9s slower than its six-cylinder sibling.
With the same styling, the 2.0-litre Supra could be a good buy for those wanting a budget sports car, but the sad new is that Toyota Australian is not considering the four-cylinder for the local market.
Speaking to CarsGuide, a Toyota Australia spokesperson said demand for the six-cylinder Supra is keeping the brand busy enough for now.
Though they would not completely rule out bringing the 2.0 litre to Australia, rumours of the second-generation 86 sporting a 194kW/376Nm 2.4-litre turbo-petrol engine could cut into the base Supra’s appeal.
For reference, the Supra kicks off from $84,900 before on-road costs in Australia.
Toyota is touting that “the smaller size and reduced weight of the new engine bring specific dynamic benefits” to the 2.0-litre Supra, which weights 100kg less than the six-cylinder and distributes its weight 50:50 front to rear.
Equipment bundled in the 2.0-litre Supra includes 18-inch wheels, four-speaker sound system, 8.8-inch instrumentation display and Alcantara sports seats, as well as autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane-keep assist and traffic sign recognition.
Article Source: Cars Guide MagazineJanuary 16, 2020 9:03 am


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When you're at a holiday party that has more apps than the iTunes store, how do you even begin resisting the bacon-wrapped cocktail wieners in favor of the pea hummus flatbread?
Just wait 0.195 seconds before making your choice, according to new research published in Psychological Science.
Researchers had 28 women and men rate 160 foods based on taste, healthfulness, and overall satisfaction. Next, participants were shown 280 random computer pairings of these same foods—like chocolate and carrots—and were asked which one they preferred. By analyzing their mouse-cursor movements, researchers found that we process a food's basic attributes, such as taste, 195 milliseconds faster than we do its abstract properties, such as healthfulness.
"Taste is more intuitive, it's more instinctual," explains lead study author Nicolette Sullivan, a grad student at the California Institute of Technology. "Even babies know what they like."
MORE: The 5 Most Pleasurable Ways To Lose Weight
But healthfulness is more complicated—it's something we learn, and it enters into the decision-making process later, if at all. So among those whose cursors initially moved toward the chocolate but clicked on the carrots, the difference was merely a split-second of thoughtfulness.
That, researchers speculate, may be the essence of self-control.
Try it yourself. Just take a few extra seconds to consider the healthier alternative the next time you're at the supermarket—or a super holiday party.


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We're in the early stages of blockbuster season, as triple-A titles muscle for your gaming dollars, and Batman is coming out swinging. Batman: Arkham City has sold 2 million copies in its first week on the market, of a total 4.6 million shipped.
The LA Times reports that the strong 2 million units sold doesn't scratch record-holders like Call of Duty, but puts Batman on track to match or top the previous game. Arkham Asylum sold 4.3 million copies in total, while Arkham City has shipped more than that in its first week and already sold almost half of them.
"The true test for any game is what the players think and we have been thrilled by their reaction to Batman: Arkham City," said Rocksteady game director Sefton Hill. "The team at Rocksteady put every ounce of effort into making the best Batman experience we possibly could, so we are overwhelmed by the incredible feedback from the community."
These sales figures only include the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, of course, since the PC version ships in mid-November.


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Imagining a new way to collaborate, with Cal Newport.
Articles about ping
Does Facebook Want You To Miss Your Life?
In case you missed it, Facebook launched a new product for the Android platform last week called Facebook Home. In the ads, it seems Facebook is tipping its hand for what they think a digitally connected life should look like.


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Soon after the ink dried on the EMC Dell merger, the ruler of the new companies, Michael Dell has called up the corporate axeman to slice up those who are not worthy to be in the new kingdom.
Dell will cut 2,000-3,000 jobs, mostly in the United States and mainly in the supply chain, marketing and general and administrative divisions. Actually it could be a lot worse. the combined company has 140,000 employees so 2-3000 people is just a drop in the bucket.
The figure comes from Bloomberg which is quoting its own deep throats. The figure strikes us as a little low.
Dell spokesman Dave Farmer said that it is common with deals of this size, there will be some overlaps we will need to manage and where some employee reduction will occur.
We agree, which is why we think the 2-3000 figure is either the first wave or the most obvious duplications.
Dell, which was taken private by founder Michael Dell along with private equity firm Silver Lake Management in 2013, agreed to buy EMC for $67 billion in October last year.
The fruity cargo cult Apple has managed to ward off the downturn in the PC market for a while now – thanks mostly to its fanboys refusing to buy anything without an Apple logo. However, all that has suddenly changed.
Apple shipped eight percent fewer Mac computers during the second quarter of 2016, compared with a year earlier, according to new estimates from two research firms.
What should be worrying Jobs’ Mob is that some of its bigger rivals managed to find growth in the PC business. So the concept that Apple will always have a market for its products is proving groundless.
Analysts estimate Apple shipped 4.4 million to 4.6 million Macs in the quarter ending June 30. True, they had a higher margin than other PCs in the market, but if a couple of fanboys refuse to buy a Mac then the figures take a bigger kicking.
The Tame Apple Press is doing its best, saying that that the whole of the PC market is suffering and it was wonderful that Apple saw off the inevitable for so long. However.
But HP, Dell and ASUS all increased their shipments during the last quarter, and benefited from a healthy US market. This is a bit weird given that is the same market which Apple is supposed to be doing well in.
Some of the problem is that Apple has basically ignored the Mac and not bothered to upgrade its MacBook Pro. Instead the company has been promoting its Surface Book clone so that it probably only has itself to blame.
Tin box shifter Michael Dell is having a few problems getting the cash he needs to buy EMC.
The commitment deadline on $10 billion of pro-rata loans in a $45 billion financing package backing computer giant Dell’s EMC purchase has been extended .
One of the problems was the Chinese New Year, which delayed approval of requests from foreign banks’ home offices to participate in the financing.
Asian banks — Chinese and Taiwanese — have balance sheets and an ancillary connection with Dell and EMC, and at the moment they are short on the paperwork.
But this, coupled with sinking oil prices, equity sell-offs and increased dollar funding costs are making it more expensive for some banks to lend and were expected to make Dell’s pro-rata loans a tougher than expected sell.
Some of the people behind the deal are a little worried. The size of the loans was challenging but trying to do it right now makes it harder.
Dell’s $10 billion pro-rata loans include a $3.5 billion three-year term loan, a $3.5 billion five-year term loan and a $3 billion five-year revolving credit facility.
The loan package also includes an $8 billion seven-year Term Loan B that will be sold to institutional investors and $25 billion of high-yield bonds, both of which will come to the market before the acquisition is scheduled to close in August.
However the thought is that even if the deal takes longer to sell, Dell’s strong enterprise-oriented business model, the credit quality of the name (expected corporate ratings Ba1/BB+, expected debt ratings Baa3/BBB), and a focus on paying down debt are seen encouraging banks to absorb the pro-rata loans.
IDC reported that the thin and terminal client market fell in the third quarter of 2015 by 6.7 percent.
Budget contraints and a move to use repurposed PCs and Chromebooks affected sales in the third quarter.
IDC said its overall forecast for the year will fall by over six percent compared to 2014.
But the market research company believes that shipments will grow between next year and 2019.
HP kept its lead in the market, with 26.9 percent. But hot on its heels was Dell with a 26 percent share. Ncomputing, Centerm, Igel and others made up the total figure.
HP’s share fell by 8.2 percent in the quarter, while Dell fell by 10.6 percent.
Tin box shifter Michael Dell’s cybersecurity unit SecureWorks has filed for an initial public offering with U.S. regulators.
SecureWorks said it intends to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol “SCWX” which is suitably cryptic.
Dell bought the outfit in 2011 and it could be worth as much as $2 billion, though the target valuation was not finalised. The filing did not reveal how many shares were planned for sale in the IPO or their expected price. The company set a nominal fundraising target of $100 million.
However all that changed when Dell agreed to buy data storage company EMC Corp for $67 billion in October. His plan was to diversify from a stagnant consumer PC market and give it greater scale in the more profitable and faster-growing market for cloud-based data services. This meant doing something with the security company and raising a bit of cash through it.
There are no indications that he is planning to sell off any of his stake in the company once the IPO is completed, but it is a pretty good bet.
Dell is also reportedly looking for a buyer for its $5 billion outsourcing business, which it acquired in 2009 when it bought Perot Systems for $3.9 billion.
Tinbox shifter Michael Dell said he could write a $3 billion cheque to buy back VMWare tracking stock to help finance its EMC acquisition.
This is important as it shows that Dell is working out ways to jack-up VMware’s value. The plans to issue a tracking stock have weighed on VMware’s common shares, which have lost a quarter of their value since the acquisition of EMC was announced in October.
Under the deal, EMC shareholders will receive 0.111 VMware tracking share for each EMC share, a move intended to give investors exposure to VMware, which is growing faster than EMC.
Dell said in a registration statement Monday that Dell “intends to consider opportunities to repurchase shares.”
Dell said it could support up to $3 billion in share repurchases and other types of payments and that the amount may increase over time, depending on its net income.
Dell said its goal will be to reduce its debt load in the first 18 to 24 months to achieve an investment-grade rating. Dell will have $49.5 billion in debt under current plans to finance the EMC deal.
Dell has reduced its debt by $4.5 billion, including $2.5 billion paid off by Dell itself. In addition, Denali Holdings, the holding company owned by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and Michael Dell that controls Dell, paid off a $2 billion loan from Microsoft.
Worldwide revenues from enterprise storage systems grew by 2.8 percent in the third quarter and amounted to a figure of $9.1 billion.
That’s according to a report from IDC, which said capacity shipments were up by 31.5 percent compared to the same quarter last year, and amounting to 33.1 exabytes.
Original design manufacturers (ODMs) which sell directly to hyperscale datacentres appeared to do the best, with this section of the market growing by 23.4 percent year on year with revenues of $1.3 billion.
While external storage systems is the biggest market segment, the $5.8 billion of sales showed a fall of 3.1 percent, year on year.
EMC was the leader in the quarter with 18.4 percent of revenues, followed by HP (16.3%), Dell (9.9%), NetApp (7.1%), IBM (6.4%). The ODMs took 13.7 percent share.
Shipments of servers worldwide in the third quarter of this year grew by 9.2 percent, while vendors’ revenues grew 7.5 percent.
But, according to Jeffrey Hewitt, a research VP at Gartner, there were mixed results depending on the regions. “All regions showed growth in both shipments and vendor revenue, except for Eastern Europe, Japan and Latin America, which posted revenue declines of 5.8 percent, 11.7 percent and 24.2 percent respectively,” he said.
The reason for the differences in regional performance were mostly down to currency fluctuations, he said.
The Asia Pacific region showed a 23.8 percent shipment increase, with revenue growth at 25.4 percent.
HP dominates the worldwide server market, followed by Dell, IBM, Lenovo and Cisco.
IBM showed a decline of 42.8 percent but that’s mostly because it sold its server business to Lenovo. However, its mainframe business grew by 15 percent, Gartner said.
The RISC, Itanium and Unix server revenue declined by 11.5 percent during the quarter.
All-in-one PCs were a great hope for PC vendors as the traditional desktop market fell, but a report suggests that sales are set to fall this year.
According to Digitimes Research (DR) only 13 million units will ship tgis year, a decline of 3.9 percent compared to 2014.
DR said that sales are expected to be flat in 2016 or even fall by around half percent.
If all-in-one PCs are included as overall desktop shipments however, they account for 10.5 percent of the total.
Lenovo was top of the pile this year, with Apple taking second place and with both vendors holding 60 percent of the total shipments.
Third, fourth and fifth are HP, Dell, and Acer.
The machines are mostly manufactured by Taiwanese original design manufacturers – the usual suspects like Quanta, Wistron, Compal and others supply 90.1 percent of the machines to the brand name vendors.
Software giant Microsoft has killed off two dodgy security certificates being used on Dell bloatware.
Updates apply to Windows Defender for Windows 10 and 8.1; Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7 and Vista; and its Safety Scanner and Malicious Software Removal tool, will remove the certificates.
Dell mistakenly included private encryption keys for two digital certificates installed in the Windows root store as part of service tools that made its technical support easier. The tools transmit back to Dell what product a customer is using.
However the private keys in both of the digital certificates could be used by attackers to sign malware, create spoof websites and conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to spy on user’s data.
One of the certificates is named eDellRoot and the other DSDTestProvider. Exposure to the latter certificate was likely more limited, as users had to download it, and the risky version was only available between October 20 and November 24, Dell claoms.
But the eDellRoot certificate, however, shipped with many new Dell laptop and desktop models. Also, older computers that ran the support tool, Dell Foundation Services (DFS), may also have been affected if DFS was configured for automatic updates.
Dell has issued an upgrade itself to remove the certificates, and it also described how to remove the certificates manually. Microsoft’s tool may help those who for one reason or another haven’t either downloaded or received the updates from Dell.


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With Election Day upon us, we’re all at the polls getting out the vote. But while we wait to see who will become the new President of the United States, let’s take a closer look at Ann Romney and Michelle Obama’s fashion choices throughout the campaign.
Ann may be the new girl on Capitol Hill, but she stuck to the classic, conservative looks of the Republican First Lady’s before her, opting for dresses made by Boston-based designer Alfred Fiandaca and Oscar de la Renta, who she wore on three different occasions.
For her speech at the Republican National Convention, the blond wore a red silk taffeta dress from de la Renta, who has designed gowns for previous First Lady’s Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton
She again appeared in de la Renta at the final debate on October 22. This time she opted for a forest green dress with a floral pattern.
While the two ladies have different styles, there were times throughout the campaign that the two looked alike.
For the first debate, Michelle went for a more structured look in a deep blue hued Preen dress with a matching jacket.
Ann also opted for a suit choosing a cream colored jacket and skirt combo from Fiandaca’s 2006 collection.
For the second debate on October 16, both Ann and Michelle wore pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
While Ann again chose de la Renta, a short-sleeved cotton silk dress that she accessorized with a beaded green necklace, Michelle wore a shift dress and cropped jacket from Michael Kors, along with a pearl necklace.
The current First Lady has made waves for her bold fashion choices by wearing up and coming designers like Jason Wu with household brands like H+M. For this election season she chose to do the same.
During her speech at the Democratic National Convention, she wore a Tracy Reese cocktail dress in gray and pink silk along with her rhubarb J. Crew suede pumps.
Who do you think better dressed the part of a First Lady this election season?
– Shannon Carlin, CBS Local
Photos courtesy of Getty Images


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Breast Cancer Drugs Found in Over-The-Counter Bodybuilding Pills
Men may have been unknowingly taking breast cancer drugs to bulk up for decades, according to a new report.
Researchers explain some body building dietary supplements contain the breast cancer drug tamoxifen, which is sometimes used to prevent and treat gynaecomastia or breast swelling caused by using anabolic steroids.
While tamoxifen for bodybuilding is usually sold on the black market, researchers believe that a dietary supplement called Esto Suppress contains tamoxifen as its label contained one of the drug's chemical names.
In the study, investigators obtained and analyzed four samples of Esto Suppress dietary supplements at different times between late 2011 and early 2012. The findings revealed that three out of four samples contained between 0,9mg to 3.8mg of tamoxifen.
Researchers said that people taking the suggested dosage of two capsules a day would be ingesting as much as 7.6mg of tamoxifen a day. They study noted that 10 to 20 mg of tamoxifen is used clinically for treating gynaecomastia.
While it is unclear whether Esto Suppress currently being sold still contains breast cancer drugs, study authors warned that an increasing number of off-the-shelf "food," "herbal," or "dietary" "supplements" claiming to help people buff up, lose weight or have better sex contain pharmacologically active substances like anabolic steroids, erectogenics, stimulants, appetite suppressants, and anxiolytics
Researchers warn that some products marketed as "natural" often contain substances that are not listed in the labeling or, in the case of Esto Suppress, given an obscure reference to manipulate people into believing that they are safer and healthier options.
Study authors wrote that most consumers "will be unaware that they are taking these substances" and advise healthcare professionals to ask their patients about their use of "supplements" and report negative reactions.


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LONDON -(Dow Jones)- GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) said it settled on the eve of a U.S. federal court case alleging that its Avandia diabetes drug led to the death of a man from a heart attack.
The U.K.'s biggest drugmaker resolved the suit by the family of James Burford, an Avandia user who died in 2006.
The settlement of the Burford case means that other Avandia cases brought in Philadelphia by two plaintiff attorneys--Joseph Zonies and Thomas Cartmell--have also been resolved, a company spokeswoman said without giving details or settlement terms.
"GSK has resolved the Burford case scheduled for trial today in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, and all cases represented by attorneys Joseph Zonies and Thomas Cartmell," Glaxo said in a statement.
"There are many circumstances where a company may determine to resolve certain matters in order to avoid the inherent risks and significant costs of litigation," the company said, adding that "GSK continues to stand behind the safety and efficacy of Avandia when used appropriately and according to its label."
Glaxo, which reports full-year results Thursday, has absorbed massive legal charges this year tied to consumer lawsuits over Avandia, once the company's second-largest selling medicine.
Data tying Avandia to increased risks of heart attacks prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to put tight restrictions on the drug's use last year, while European regulators ordered Avandia withdrawn from the market.
Copyright © 2011 Dow Jones Newswires


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If International luxury brands want to succeed in China, they can’t be all things to all consumers. Whether they will succeed in capturing the lucrative yet ever-evolving market in China depends on how they manage to understand and anticipate the demands of the luxury client and how they play out their expansion strategy in a way that does not dilute their brand value.
Suzanne Godfrey, Professor of Marketing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, warns international luxury brands in China that, if they are to succeed in the China market they cannot be all things to all consumers.
Ever since the new political leaders in China coined the term the “great rebalancing act” to push for growth in domestic consumption, there has been a lot of talk about how to achieve that goal.
While there are those who paint doomsday scenarios of China’s economic prospects — including the latest one by Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman — who argues that China now faces a number of insurmountable challenges such as an abnormally low rate of consumption, on the other side of the scale there is a strong sense of optimism that China’s resilient and its ever-expanding middle and affluent classes will come to the rescue. In fact, a report by The Boston Consulting Group published in late 2012, says that by 2020, China is expected to have 280 million affluent consumers, accounting for more than 30 percent of the urban population. By 2020, this class of people is expected to account for 75 percent of the US$150-billion growth in the personal-luxury-goods market. And within this group, the “Sugar Generation” — the children of the current affluent class — makes up just 10 percent but is expected to grow to 30 percent in the next five years.
What’s more, according to another report by McKinsey published in December 2012, beyond China’s affluent class is a rising number of an ultra-wealthy households, or high net-worth individuals, whose annual disposable income is above RMB 1 million. Their number is projected to grow at over 20 percent annually in the next three years. What’s more important is their tendency to trade up to more expensive and more luxurious products. This group is expected to account for 28 percent of luxury consumption by 2015. With these figures in mind, it would be difficult to believe that a strong domestic consumption trend would be absent on the horizon.
Suzanne Godfrey, Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School, and founder and director of Suzanne Q Solutions, a Hong Kong-based brand and marketing consultancy, agrees there are a lot of opportunities for international marketers of luxury brands—such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Hermès—going forward. Whether they will succeed in capturing the lucrative yet ever-evolving market in China depends on how they manage to understand and anticipate the demands of the luxury client and how they play out their expansion strategy in a way that does not dilute their brand value.
Snapshot of the new affluent style
What do luxury brand marketers need to know about their and up-and-coming Chinese consumers? According to Prof. Godfrey, they tend to be “more flashy and ostentatious. They want to show off. It’s about climbing up the ladder and you see that in so many aspects of life in China. They didn’t have it yesterday and they’ve got it today.” However, she says that Chinese luxury goods buyers are now becoming increasingly sophisticated, particularly at the top end. She points out that luxury has created a new social protocol and the increased number of upscale social and business events has provided the opportunity to wear and show off luxury. “As China has become more prosperous, the opportunities to wear these things, and to drink wine and even champagne, have also increased,” she notes.
Another interesting phenomenon is how quickly consumers want to trade up the brands in order to distinguish themselves from “the new people coming in at the bottom.” She explains: “There is such a migration of people out of the middle class, into the middle class, within the middle class, just because of the speed with which people have been making money. People want to separate themselves and not be associated with those newly rich. They are getting a bit more stylish, looking to trade up within a brand or to even more exclusive labels.” In fact, the recent global trend to trade up–and down–is also occurring in China, particularly among the “Sugar Generation”—those born in the 1980s and 1990s who grew up in affluence. “This younger generation of people wish to demonstrate their individualism and are mixing and matching high street brands with luxury accessories,” says Prof. Godfrey.
What is important to know, however, is not so much the kind of individual styles these people have adopted but the motivation behind their purchases. “As they start getting some experience with using luxury and start trading up, they are changing their motivation for purchase, not just for the status—it’s still there for sure—but they are doing it also for themselves. It’s a move from just buying the material things to the actual experience of having a luxury lifestyle. So that includes travel holidays, spas, wellness centres, and art. They are moving into experiences, which is about pleasing self.”
The luxury market is all about experience—from the aspiration to the actual purchase to being given individual attention and made to feel special-the kind of exclusivity that the ultra-rich Chinese demand is on a much higher level than most other cultures, according to Prof. Godfrey.
“For example, some brands close their entire stores to host exclusive shopping evenings to those on the VIP list. Some wineries in France have flown some of their best Chinese customers to Bordeaux to see how their wines are made. These are really exceptional treatments,” she says.
Dilemma for international brands
In China’s luxury goods market, there are those who belong to what is known as the “mass luxury consumers” and those who are more sophisticated and regarded as luxury “clients”—which is closer to the traditional definition of those who buy luxury. Prof. Godfrey thinks the former is an oxymoron because the nature of luxury inherently means that one does not “consume” it, and luxury doesn’t exist “en masse.” However, in China that is a reality created by the surge of new money among a huge population and the desire for luxury that has come with it.
The problem that this class of consumers has created for luxury brands is whether marketers want to—and can—appeal to both ends of the spectrum: both the “new rich” and the wealthy elite. Some brands have tried to introduce lower-priced items such as accessories, in the hope that the mass luxury consumers will eventually be able to afford products at the higher end of the price range. In doing so, they are trying to reach out to both groups of customers.
But this isn’t always possible, contends Prof. Godfrey. “For the brands, it’s a question of how they can appeal to those mass luxury consumers in the hope they will stay with the brand and eventually trade up to higher-priced products rather than go in search of a different and more prestigious label.
At the same time, the brands want to appeal to the top end of the market–the wealthy elite—and not alienate them or dilute their brand image in the process. Luxury expansion needs to be handled quite carefully.
The shifting trend
While some international brands run a wide gamut of products to capture as big a sector of the market as possible, there are those who have gone in a different direction. “There are a lot of newer brands coming up, which are smaller and more niche,” says Prof. Godfrey. “They are beginning to differentiate themselves and going for things that are unique and individual, things that are one of a kind or more of a limited edition. These brands are helping to preserve some of the local skills and crafts around the world. They also want to make money but not necessarily billions. They don’t have shareholders breathing down their necks. They are much more protective of the brand’s vision and with what they want to do and how they expand.” Some examples of such brands that build on traditional Chinese craftsmanship and use of local materials include:
Shang Xia, a clothing, home decorations and accessory shop owned by Hermès, with shops in Shanghai, Beijing and most recently, Paris.
Qeelin, an upscale jewellery brand established by a Hong Kong designer and a French entrepreneur, owned by Kering, the newly rebranded PPR Gucci Group.
Shiatzy Chen, a fashion house set up by a Taiwanese designer with stores in Greater China, Asia and Europe.
The thinking is that there is a role for Asian brands in the long term. The big names in the business understand that luxury brands can take a long time to develop. “It takes time to build up reputation, to create a dream and to establish your clientele,” Prof. Godfrey notes. “These companies have long-term visions, and they’ve got deep pockets so they can absorb some of the risks.”
Which city tier to expand into?
There has been a big push to go into a lot more cities beyond the Tier-1 cities. But companies that have done that have recently pulled back from their initial rapid expansion plans.
“The concern with going into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities is that the [international marketers] are risking stretching themselves too thin too quickly,” observes Prof. Godfrey. “It’s not about how many stores you have but about the quality and how logistically difficult it is in China to maintain control. It’s better to start out with fewer stores than spread yourself too widely and lose your brand’s cachet in the process.”
Prof. Godfrey also stresses the potential harm to the brand through expanding too quickly in lower-tier cities: “It’s about the image. You need to have your stores situated in the right location, where there is the right environment, otherwise it may harm your image. And you need to offer the right experience. The quality of the consumer is also likely to be different. When they purchase your products they become representatives of your brand.”
These factors—especially the complexity and size of the population—make it all the more challenging to manage luxury brand images in China. Prof. Godfrey does not advocate luxury brands to focus on penetrating Tier-3 cities at the moment, and to be cautious about entering Tier-2. “Some brands think they can sell lots of different things – a wide range of goods at different price levels. But coming in as a new brand, it’s actually quite important to emphasize the heritage and the brand’s origins. It’s not about being everything to all people. It’s important to get the foundation of the brand established, to focus on the core,” she advises.
Educating their mainland clientele
Since buying luxury products is very much about the experience, Western companies need to cultivate potential clients and spend money on that education process, according to Prof. Godfrey. “It’s about teaching people to become connoisseurs, educating them through experiential marketing, and giving them the opportunity to learn to appreciate the brand.” In China, several brands have started the trend of staging exhibitions, cultural events and fashion shows. Examples include Chanel’s Culture Exhibition, Cartier Treasures Exhibition, the opening of Johnnie Walker House and the fashion show at Louis Vuitton’s Shanghai flagship store.“Luxury is about pleasure-seeking and the emotions that this brings, so a lot of the communication by luxury brands is about storytelling, showing the heritage and culture, engaging and people so they can understand the brand better,” explains Prof. Godfrey.
Encouraging domestic consumption
Besides educating potential clientele, there are a few things that international luxury brands should try to address to encourage domestic consumption. Due to the various types of taxes imposed on imported luxury goods, prices of luxury goods could easily be 50 to 70 percent more than what they would cost overseas. As a result, luxury tourism, which has always been big in Asia, has taken off big time in recent years in China. Chinese consumers feel that they get a much better experience and service while shopping abroad. The allure attached to buying authentic foreign products in their countries of origin—both for themselves and for their friends and family back home—makes luxury tourism all the more attractive, so much so that companies like Louis Vuitton have introduced Chinese staff in their flagship European stores.
To encourage domestic consumption, Prof. Godfrey suggests that international marketers should make sure their stores can deliver the same level of quality and experience that their clients enjoy overseas. “This involves training staff to provide the expected level of service, imbue clients with the brand’s aesthetics, and the culture that stems largely from its country of origin, as well as staffing the shop floor with people from the ‘home’ country.”
Another thing, suggests the professor, is to make sure there is a greater consistency in the range of products between the stores in China and those overseas and, of course, to see if they can get more equalized prices. But this, ultimately, would be the government’s job.


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Cherry Mobile S10 Pro coming soon
Cherry Mobile has posted a teaser on its official Facebook page confirming the launch of its newest smartphone, the Cherry Mobile S10 Pro.
To recap, last week, Cherry Mobile shared a teaser video revealing a 3D animation of a smartphone’s camera set-up.
Now, Cherry Mobile has finally revealed the smartphone’s name and an allude to its design. The post hints at the S10 Pro’s slim bezels and a punch-hole selfie camera.
Other than these, there’s no other information yet about the upcoming launch, so stay tuned!
Source: Cherry Mobile (Facebook)