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A report on the closure of three garment factories under the Jaqalanka Group, says that the garment industry is becoming “increasingly financially unviable” in Sri Lanka. Although the industry initially flourished on the basis of low cost labour, increasing domestic costs have now made the industry unviable.
The ‘Jaqalanka Closure Report’ was commissioned by the Fair Labour Association, an international NGO trying to end sweatshop labour, in May this year, to find out the causes for the closure of 3 factories of the Jaqalanka Group. The fact finding was conducted by T- Group Solutions of New Delhi, with assistance from CSR International of Colombo.
Although many reasons are identified as causes specifically for the Jaqalanka factories having to shut down, the report indicates that garment factories are becoming uncompetitive and unviable, in general. This is mainly due to increasing labour and other costs.
Increasing labour costs are linked to shortages of skilled labour. The report says there is an acute shortage of garment industry related skilled labour in Sri Lanka, especially in the Katunayake Export Processing Zone. This shortage has added to financial unsustainability of garment factories by putting up wages and by forcing factories to provide extra benefits to retain workers.
Other reasons, cited by the report, for the closure of the Jaqalanka factories, include increasing costs of raw materials, fuel, electricity and transportation, in the country. However, although manufacturing costs increased, the report notes that garment buyers actually ‘tightened’ prices.
The report said there was no evidence to suggest that demands or pressures emanating from the trade union contributed in any way to the closure of the Jaqalanka facilities. This was confirmed by the owner of Jaqalanka, it said..
According to industry estimates Sri Lanka’s garment sector has by now shrunk to about 300 factories from about 800 factories at one time.


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The United States Trustee objected to Gibson Brands Inc.'s motion to close all but one of its Chapter 11 cases, saying that more needs to be done before the musical instrument maker is ready to exit bankruptcy.
Gibson needs to challenge objectionable creditor claims, obtain final approval of fees for attorneys and other professionals, and resolve fees it owes to the U.S. Trustee, among other things, according to a Dec. 13 filing by the trustee, a Justice Department branch that oversees bankruptcy proceedings.
Gibson Brands, including its iconic line of Gibson guitars, had been a mainstay in professional and amateur music for more than a century when the company filed Chapter 11 in May.
The company blamed its financial woes on an ill-fated acquisition of an electronics company, which was renamed Gibson Innovations. Gibson sold the GI Business for $1.6 million early in the case.
Under Gibson’s reorganization plan, which the court approved Oct. 4, KKR & Co., Gibson’s principal lender, converted $518 million of debt forownership of the company.
Gibson filed a motion Nov. 29 asking the court to close most of the multiple cases filed by Gibson and its related companies, leaving open a single case called Guitar Liquidation Corporation to administer the post-bankruptcy debtor.
The trustee said the cases shouldn’t be closed until they are further administered. Claims objections could “consume several months,” it said.
It argued that Gibson is improperly seeking substantive consolidation of the many separately filed bankruptcy cases so it can avoid paying required trustee fees for each case.
Christopher S. Sontchi, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, will consider the motion and objection on Dec. 20.
Goodwin Procter LLP represents Gibson. The Office of the Untied States Trustee represents Andrew R. Vara, the Acting U.S. Trustee for Region 3.
The case is In re: Gibson Brands, Inc., Bankr. D. Del., 18-11025, United States Trustee’s Objection 12/13/18.

domain: news


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Even the new iPhone, the release of which is expected in coming September, will not be able to compete in speed work in networks of fourth-generation flagship smartphones running Android. This is due to the fact that Qualcomm is not going to supply branded LTE modems for iPhone the 2018 model year.
“We believe that the next generation iPhone, Apple does not intend to use the modems Qualcomm, focusing on the decision of our competitor,” said financial Manager of Qualcomm George Davis.
What is faster: Android or iPhone
Obviously, the main and perhaps the sole supplier of modems for iPhone 2018 will be Intel, whose products are much lower than the Qualcomm solutions. This is confirmed by comparative test the speed of smartphones in LTE networks. According to its results iPhone X with chip XMM7480 lost Galaxy S9 with X20 on Board for all indicators.
In the past, Apple branded smartphones equipped with Qualcomm modems, rejecting them because of the conflict. Qualcomm accused Apple of deliberately understating performance of proprietary modems that they correspond to the speed of the Intel, which also met in some instances the iPhone.
To discuss this and other news Android in our Telegram chat.


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Diurnal raises at least £7m through conditional placing
Speciality pharmaceutical company Diurnal Group announced a conditional placing with institutional investors on Friday, to raise at least £7m before expenses, at a price of 32p per new share.
The AIM-traded firm said the net proceeds would be used to progress the development and commercialisation of its products including to continue the development of the European commercial organisation and roll-out of ‘Alkindi’.
They would also be used to begin market access activities for ‘Chronocort’ in Europe ahead of anticipated approval in the first quarter of 2021, and to strengthen its balance sheet in connection with licensing discussions for ‘Alkindi’ and ‘Chronocort’ in the United States and the rest of the world.
Finally, Diurnal said the proceeds would help it to progress its early-stage pipeline to clinical trials, including proof-of-principle studies and further development of ‘DITEST’, its native oral testosterone formulation.
Based on the board’s current assumptions, which assume both a successful first half 2020 US licencing deal and a successful marketing authorisation in the first quarter of 2021, and the subsequent launch of Chronocort, the net proceeds of the placing were expected to provide funding to profitability for the company's late-stage cortisol replacement franchise.
It noted that the placing price represented a discount of about 4.5% to the mid-market closing price of the company's ordinary sShares on 5 March.
The placing was being conducted by way of an accelerated bookbuilding process, which was to be launched immediately after the announcement on Friday morning.
“Diurnal has delivered against all the key milestones set out at the time of the company's last fundraising, including the continued development of our commercial organisation and roll-out of Alkindi in Europe, as well as regulatory submissions for both Chronocort in Europe and Alkindi in the US,” said chief executive officer Martin Whitaker.
“Funds raised as a result of this proposed Placing will allow us to progress our vision of becoming a world-leading specialty pharma company in endocrinology, in particular through supporting the continued roll-out of Alkindi and commencing market access activities for Chronocort in Europe ahead of its anticipated approval in the first quarter of 2021.”
Whitaker said the bolstering of its balance sheet was also timely as it progressed licensing discussions with potential US partners.
“We also expect the proceeds to provide funding to profitability for the company's late-stage cortisol replacement franchise.”
At 1527 GMT, shares in Diurnal were down 5.97% at 31.5p.


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As part of Etisalat Group commitment to serve its customers round the clock and following the recent successful launch of first Sub-Saharan Africa operator branded application store in Tanzania, Etisalat continues to roll out more apps stores across its international operations.
Today, Etisalat announced the commercial launch of first application store in Nigeria.
The service was introduced in partnership between Etisalat and Emitac Mobile Solutions (EMS). The new offering provides Etisalat Nigeria BlackBerry smartphone users the access to a wide array of locally relevant contents.
Users can now discover, download and enjoy a wide array of mobile applications for their BlackBerry smartphone in a variety of categories including entertainment, games, social networking, news, weather and productivity.
Among "Etisalat Nigeria" many first historic services in Nigeria and Africa, this new service offering aims also to encourage Young Nigerian apps developers to design stellar and innovative apps that enhance users experience and at the same time nourishes local talent and creating commercial opportunities for them.
Mr. Essa Al Haddad, Etisalat Group Chief Marketing Officer, said, "We are delighted to introduce first in Sub-Saharan Africa operator branded apps store. This is another milestone for Etisalat Group. "Zantel" was our first station " Nigeria" the second in raw and more on the pipeline.
Al Haddad added, "The elevated demand for BlackBerry apps in Africa is behind this move besides, our continuous commitment to Nigeria and the Nigeria's applications developer's to bring the latest in technology and applications to the market. We look forward to seeing rich catalog of personal and business oriented apps produced in Nigeria."
Al Haddad stated, "Partnering with a company such as EMS will enable transformational of end-user experiences in Nigeria and Africa and deliver on our promise to change the communications experience of our customers and the way people communicate."
Mr. Babar Khan, CEO, EMS, said, "Our partnership with Etisalat is substantial. We are very excited to venture the new app store platform with Etisalat in Nigeria. This will be a rich content experience for all BlackBerry users. Fully branded Etisalat portal allows customers to browse for the particular apps, ringtones, download Nigeria specific content or receive latest relevant news from trusted African publisher. Device personalization section of the portal will allow customers to turns BlackBerry device into a cool, customized and truly different device."
In order to access the service and enjoy a pool of application, information and entertainment services, customers just need to click on the link:
http://www.etisalat.com.ng/appstore directly from their Blackberry device.
Etisalat apps store application will be automatically installed on the smartphone.


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Workforce issues along with an emphasis on product quality and driving capacity top the list of reasons for investing in mixing technology.
Additionally, spiraling operating costs represent a major headwind as bakeries seek systems that provide versatility while attaining higher production volumes.
These issues were the hot topics with bakers during last year’s International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE). They will also be a major focus at this year’s iba trade show, which will be held Oct. 22-26 in Munich.
“Overall, bakery manufacturers are looking for solutions to optimize production costs and maintain margins,” explained Melanie Gay, marketing manager, VMI. “To do so, they want to be able to understand and better measure their operating costs and their return on investments. They are also more interested in services, upgrades or retrofits that might help them improve their production without requiring a new equipment purchase.”
Jim Warren, vice president of Exact Mixing, Reading Bakery Systems, mentioned the quality, technical ability and cost of available skilled labor as primary concerns for the industry.
“While training, competitive salary, better benefits and working conditions are keys to navigating the workforce crisis, automation, when available, is an important part of the workforce equation,” he noted.
Bakers at IBIE also asked about rental equipment, recalled Bob Peck, vice president of engineering, E.T. Oakes.
“They want to rent equipment before they buy it, and we have a large rental program because of that,” he said.
He added the company rents slurry and continuous mixers for a short period, normally a month, to see how it performs before bakers purchase it. Most often, he said, new customers are giving the mixers a test drive, but larger bakeries can rent smaller models to run trials on new products.
This article is an excerpt from the May 2023 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Mixing, click here.


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Swiftpage Updates Act CRM Software
Updated · Sep 11, 2013
When Swiftpage, a provider of integrated marketing and CRM solutions, purchased the Act! contact management and Saleslogix customer relationship management (CRM) businesses from Sage earlier this year, it promised to continue to invest in the products.
It is making good on that promise with today’s launch of Act! v16 , which adds new capabilities in direct response to requests from the Act! end-user community. For example, users of Act! Premium now will enjoy expanded CRM functionality on mobile devices, at no extra charge. Other new features:
- Streamlined company management and global actions — Allows for the automatic consolidation of contact details and global activity scheduling.
- New calculated fields — Performs calculations automatically using data from other standard or custom fields, helping users prioritize and automate tasks, drive sales and enhance relationships.
- New history view — Enables users to easily locate, analyze and act on data within a dynamic view of all completed actions.
Also in response to customer feedback, Swiftpage will now provide multiple Act! product updates each year, rather than a single upgrade annually. In addition, updates can now be streamed and installed in the background without requiring the user to reinstall the core platform. Act! Business Care subscribers will have immediate access to each new update as it is released.
“Today’s release demonstrates our unwavering commitment to this product and the incredible Act! user community worldwide,” said H. John Oechsle, president and CEO of Swiftpage, noting that the new release “lays the critical foundation for our longer-term strategy and roadmap.”
The English version of Act! v16 is available now. The company plan to release German and French language versions next month.
Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.


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$240 Nokia G400 5G visits FCC with 120Hz refresh rate, 5,000mAh battery and triple camera array
FCC documentation for the Nokia G400 5G reveals camera specs
Thanks to the FCC visit, we know that the triple-camera setup will feature a 48MP main sensor, a 5MP ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. The front-facing selfie snapper is expected to feature a 16MP camera sensor.
The Nokia G100 manual was also part of the FCC documentation for that phone. Known as the TA-1430 model, the G100 is expected to retail for $150 and come with a 6.5-inch display, triple-camera array, side-mounted fingerprint scanner and a 5000 mAh battery. The Nokia G100, unlike the G400, does not support 5G connectivity.


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Dutch Bros Coffee IPO Brews Oregon’s Newest Billionaire
Biotech and sports companies dominate the public listings this week, but Oregon-based coffee chain Dutch Bros stands out. The firm was started by two brothers who quit the dairy industry to sell coffee from a pushcart (equipped with a single espresso machine and a stereo) in the small city of Grants Pass in 1992. It has now grown to more than 470 shops—known for their drive-through only format—spread across 11 states. Still led by one of the brothers, executive chairman Travis Boersma, the family-run business went public on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday in an IPO that raised nearly $500 million and turned Boesma into a billionaire.
“This is an incredible day for Dutch Bros, a total mind blow,” Boersma, 50, told Forbes on Wednesday. “When my brother and I started this company almost 30 years ago, we never imagined we’d be here today. Right now, I’m focused on providing more opportunities for our people—that’s the heart of why we went public.” The company has nearly 17,000 employees.
The blockbuster IPO makes it the largest in Oregon’s history: Dutch Bros raised about $484 million, far more than the $146 million and $169 million raised by Oregon heavyweights Nike and Columbia Sportswear in 1980 and 1998, respectively, adjusted for inflation. Boersma owns about 41% of the newly public company, a stake worth $2.5 billion. Shares in Dutch Bros closed at $36.92 on its first day of trading, 61% higher than the opening price of $23. The cofounder also purchased a plane from Dutch Bros for $900,000 in July and sold a chunk of shares in the IPO that raked in about $69 million after accounting for capital gains taxes, bringing his estimated net worth to $2.6 billion. Thanks to several “anti-takeover” provisions and a multi-tiered share structure, Boersma will retain 74% of the firm’s voting shares.
Dutch Bros is a relative pipsqueak compared to coffee chains like Starbucks and Peet’s. The firm recorded a net loss of nearly $62 million on $327 million in sales last year, with sales growing by 60% in 2020 as the chain added 71 new locations, all company-owned. Dutch Bros stopped franchising in 2017, but 56% of Dutch Bros locations are still owned by franchisees—many of them with long-standing ties to the company thanks to a 2008 decision to sell franchises only to people within the “Dutch Bros system.” All of the 179 new stores opened since 2018 are operated by shop managers promoted from within.
Publicly traded coffee companies have been a mixed bag since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic: JDE Peet’s, which owns the coffee retailer Peet’s Coffee, went public on the Amsterdam stock exchange in June 2020 and has seen its shares slide by 12% since it started trading.. On the other hand, formerly public Dunkin’ Brands was acquired by restaurant investment firm Inspire Brands for $11.3 billion in October 2020 at $106.50 per share, a 7% premium to the firm’s stock price at the time the deal was announced. In comparison, Starbucks, purchased when it was a tiny regional outfit by Howard Schultz, who later became a billionaire, is still far ahead of the pack: The giant pulled in $23.5 billion in sales from more than 32,000 stores in its 2020 fiscal year running through September, and its shares are up by 15% since the beginning of 2021.
Still, Dutch Bros is counting on an aggressive expansion strategy and brand loyalty among its customers to ensure steady growth as a public company. The chain continued its eastward expansion with new shops in Texas and Oklahoma this year, with the aim of eventually reaching 4,000 locations across the U.S. All of its stores are drive-throughs, a model the firm says helped keep its locations accessible throughout pandemic lockdowns and the wildfires that ravaged Oregon in 2020. Dutch Bros has also developed a unique culture since its founding—touted as “Dutch Luv”—calling its baristas “broistas” and offering a secret menu of signature drinks ranging from the “Hot Annihilator” (an espresso and chocolate-macadamia-nut syrup concoction) to “Blue Rebel” energy drinks.
Travis and Dane Boersma started Dutch Bros with a pushcart by the railroad tracks in Grants Pass, Oregon in 1992, after leaving the dairy industry, which had employed two generations of their Dutch-origin family before them. “Changes to the [dairy] industry were making our prospects pretty grim. So we used that reality as motivation to branch out and try something new,” Boersma said in a statement in the firm’s offering prospectus. “Dane and I shared a desire to do something extraordinary together. We bought a double-head espresso machine, cranked up the stereo, threw open the barn doors and started experimenting with coffee beans.”
The brothers added four more carts over the years and by 1994 they had purchased their first drive-through location, setting the stage for their expansion beyond Grants Pass and into neighboring towns (and later, states) with the opening of their first franchise location in 2000. Tragedy struck in 2004 when Dane was diagnosed with ALS, a deadly neurodegenerative condition also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The diagnosis sparked a charitable campaign called “Drink One For Dane” to help raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which supports ALS research. While Dane died as a result of ALS in 2009, the company says that the campaign has raised more than $10.3 million for ALS patients and research to date.
Dutch Bros kept growing under Travis’ helm and the firm took on outside investment for the first time in September 2018, receiving an undisclosed amount from San Francisco-based private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners. TSG is the second-largest shareholder in Dutch Bros, with a roughly 31% stake worth nearly $1.9 billion. Boersma stepped down as CEO to serve as executive chairman in February and was replaced at the top by Joth Ricci, who joined Dutch Bros in 2019 and previously served as president of Portland-based artisanal coffee brand Stumptown Coffee Roasters from 2013 to 2017. In May, four months ahead of the IPO, Dutch Bros took out a $200 million loan from JPMorgan Chase, which it plans to repay using proceeds from the public listing.
The memories of that first cart with his brother still drive Travis Boersma’s vision for the company today, nearly three decades and hundreds of new coffee shops later. “[Dane’s death] did not diminish the incredible inspiration I draw from my brother, to carry on and fulfill the dream we had in 1992.” he said in the prospectus. “We’re on a rocket ship and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”


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About 115,000 people will lose Obamacare coverage by Sept. 30, and another 336,000 risk losing subsidies, officials said.» Read More
Family Dollar adopted a one-year poison pill with a trigger of 10 percent, two days after Carl Icahn reported a stake in the company.
U.S. economic growth should accelerate and remain healthy for the rest of this year, according to a forecast by a group of U.S. business economists.
The new McCarran Medical Clinic and Pharmacy at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas can fill prescriptions or offer a pre-flight IV.
Tyson Foods announced on Monday it has acquired Hillshire Brands in a deal it valued at about $8.55 billion.
Amazon will start managing subscription payments for start-ups and other companies as it continues to creep into PayPal's turf.
Average U.S. gas prices rose just barely in the last three weeks, showing signs of stability, according to the most recent Lundberg survey.
Standard & Poor affirmed in a release the current AA+/A-1+ rating for U.S. sovereign credit and called the outlook "stable."
Cybercrime is costing the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars every year and the price is continuing to rise, according to a report.
Now that they've made-up, Bill Ackman tells CNBC he's trying to get Carl Icahn to sell Herbalife.
Drug giant Merck said it would purchase Idenix Pharmaceuticals for $3.85 billion, a deal already approved by both companies' board of directors.
Most professional men place an incredible value on paternity leave, according to two new studies. Why are some men so reluctant to take it?
Hillshire Brands is expected to declare Tyson the victor of a bidding war over itself, people briefed on the matter said on Sunday.
President Barack Obama will issue an executive action aimed at making it easier for young people to avoid trouble repaying student loans.
Significant U.S. corporate tax reform could help improve middle class wages and jobs and attract investment from around the world.
Halliburton has gone from laggard to leader among energy stocks, leading an oil-service sector rally. Is it time to take the money and run?
The U.S. stock market's record-shattering rise comes amid reports that the economy is slowly improving. Still, strategists are on guard.
High-profile attorney Michael Lewis filed a class-action lawsuit against 13 stock exchanges over high-frequency trading.
With the release of the PS4 and Xbox One, there's a new mid-year sales leader in the videogame industry—and it's not Call of Duty for a change.
You may have heard in the wake of last year's massive Target data breach that customers aren't liable for fraudulent charges. But is that true?
Last week, a Wall Street watchdog group issued a warning to savers about CD rates that seem too good to be true.
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Aegerion stock continues to climb after full-year financials
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In its first quarterly earnings report since becoming a commercial-stage drug company, Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:AEGR) said it expects to be pulling in $100 million in revenues by the second half of 2014, and to break even in its cash flow from operations.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based drug company’s stock has been on a steady rise since mid-October, when an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted in favor of approving its novel drug, lomitapide, for use in patients with a rare, genetic cholesterol disorder called homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH). The company received final approval from the FDA in December, and launched the drug under the name, Juxtapid.
On Wednesday, the rise continued as its stock jumped 5 percent to $36.33 as of 2 p.m. It has now risen 90 percent since the Oct. 18, 2012 news of the FDA advisory board vote, and 20 percent in just the last five days, thanks in part to favorable ratings from analysts. According to the Jags Report, the Jefferies Group started coverage on Aegerion with a ‘buy’ rating on Monday, at the same time Bank of America started coverage with a ‘buy’ rating and a $39 price target.
For the full year of 2012, the company reported on Wednesday that it saw a net loss of $62 million, and total assets of $85 million. For the coming year, the company said it expects global net revenues of $15 million to $25 million.
“2012 was an important year for Aegerion, and more importantly, for HoFH patients,” said CEO Marc D. Beer in a statement. “Following FDA approval, we are focused on strong commercial execution. We are very pleased with the early acceptance of Juxtapid with over 400 REMS trained physicians and 85 prescriptions globally to date. The initial ramp of our commercial launch is on track to achieve our previously stated guidance of 250-300 patients globally on therapy by the end of 2013.”
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While wearable technology’s impact in fitness and healthcare is clearly visible, it is yet to make a firm imprint in the restaurant industry. From smartwatches to Google glasses, wearable technology can benefit the restaurant industry in big ways.
Think about a restaurant that uses digital menus. If the eatery runs out of a specific food item, instead of notifying every wait staff, the chef could simply use the Google glass app and update the menu in real time.
Restaurant 2025 Oracle Food and Beverage study shows differing views presented by customers, restaurant staffs and restaurant owners.
Only 51 percent of restaurant owners liked the idea of guests using their wearable devices to order and pay for their meals, according to the Oracle report. It’s worth noting that Apple Watch was readily available when the research was conducted. On the consumer side, customers were slightly more enthusiastic about ordering and paying via a wearable device. 18 percent of the customers surveyed said they would definitely use wearable technology to order or pay for their meal and 41 percent said they would welcome the option, but 41 percent said it would not enhance their experience and they would find it intrusive.
On the other hand, the 2016 Restaurant Industry Forecast by the National Restaurant Association found 63% of guests say they would be willing to use tableside payment stations, up from 48% a year ago.
The Oracle study also found that 58% of restaurant owners found the idea of using wearable technology for promotions or other marketing messages to guests appealing. However, it’s not clear whether the customers would feel the same way.
The most significant finding in the Oracle report was that customers liked the idea of technology allowing them to be recognized in a restaurant without having to show a loyalty card. On the owners’ side, 51 percent liked the idea of using wearables to do this.
Wearable technology can impact the restaurant industry in many ways. This technology can provide the kitchen workers with an incredible advantage, allowing real-time communications. Chefs can video stream their cooking process using Google Glass, which will allow trainee chefs to watch the video on their smartphone and copy the process as they work.
For the management, wearable tech can provide them with real-time inventory information right on the floor in their wearable, giving them more time with diners while performing their managerial duties.
Wearable technology can do many things to improve our restaurant experience, and it can even improve the quality of the food served there. But, will it improve the quality of airplane food?


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In the past “going-green” has often carried the stigma of requiring costly upgrades and regular expenses for businesses. But with a consumer base that cares about the environment, modern technologies, new innovations, and creative entrepreneurial solutions, “going green” is showing to be an educated financial investment that has the potential to increase your bottom line.
Erin Hinton, a senior sustainability consultant at Shift Advantage, explains in her article “Why Going Green Gives Your Business A Competitive Advantage,” that “A 2014 Nielsen study found that 55 percent of global consumers are so passionate about the planet and its people that they’re willing to pay more for products and services provided by sustainable companies…” As younger generations start to take over as the majority of the consumer base, this trend has no signs of slowing down.
Reflecting the expenses of going green in the price of products/services provided would be a necessary measure for but it is not always the case that environmentally conscious shifts are more expensive. Some solutions are actually great long-term investments. For example, switching to renewable energy sources has proven to be more cost-effective in the long run. Energysage claims that through installing solar panels, commercial property owners will reduce their energy bills by up to 75 percent. The long-term saving is likely to cover the costs incurred of the initial installation and purchase over time. The International Renewable Energy Agency shows that the auction prices that define the parameters of the cost of renewable power are continuing to fall, and may even make coal obsolete in the future.
If your company makes the decision to “go green” make sure to avoid greenwashing by actually supporting your claims with evidence by providing you consumers and releasing your environmental blueprint and figures to the public. Even though releasing these figures is not mandated, according to One Brief’s article “Why Environmental Sustainability is Becoming Big for Business,” “71 percent of the world’s top 500 companies opting to externally audit their environmental impact numbers.” This will not only improve public relations for these companies but also helps them stay on top of expenses in the process.
Data is continuing to provide evidence that companies should shift their focus and efforts on environmental sustainability if they hope to evolve with consumer trends, save money in the long run and maintain a positive public image.
Who is Kelsey?
Kelsey Rumburg is a creator and a builder dedicated to inspiring social and environmental change through her words and actions. Check out her book, Trash to Treasure, for more information. Follow @trashtotreasuremindset on Instagram and @trashtocashbook on Twitter to stay up to date on all things #trashy!


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New York-based Internet giant IAC/InterActiveCorp is gearing up for another run at acquiring Angie’s List Inc., The New York Post reported Tuesday.
Indianapolis-based Angie’s List spurned a $512 million takeover bid by IAC in mid-November.
The Post, citing a source close to the situation, said IAC is waiting until after Angie’s List reports quarterly earnings later this month to announce the new bid. Angie’s List hasn’t yet announced an official earnings release date but analysts expect it to be on or near Feb. 17.
IAC, founded and controlled by billionaire media mogul Barry Diller, owns Angie's List competitor HomeAdvisor. Diller said combining HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List would create a home-services powerhouse.
Golden, Colorado-based HomeAdvisor on Tuesday confirmed it has locked up plans to open a 10,000-square-foot office in downtown Indianapolis with 50 salespeople later this month.
Angie's List CEO Scott Durchslag, a former Best Buy executive, has resisted the idea of selling the company, despite activist pressure. He said IAC’s bid undervalued the company and he preferred to explore organic growth plans to increase shareholder value.
Angie’s List has mostly been unprofitable since its 2011 initial public offering. Investors initially were OK with sacrificing profit for growth, but the company’s stock has fallen from about $28 a share in mid-2013 to the single digits. Shares traded at $8.70 each Wednesday morning, up 4 percent on the day.
Some analysts believe a hostile takeover bid could be coming if the two companies don't eventually hash out a friendlier merger.
IAC on Tuesday reported a disappointing profit of 75 cents a share. Wall Street expected 93 cents.
IAC shares fell 2.9 percent Wednesday morning, to $50.68 each.


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(Aug. 17) – A federal judge in California gave AT&T a potential $4 billion victory Thursday in a false advertising case brought by the Federal Trade Commission against DIRECTV.
U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam of the Northern District of California ruled Thursday that the FTC “definitively failed to prove its case” that DIRECTV misled customers in tens of thousands of TV, websites and newspaper advertisements over an eight-year span.
In a 45-page decision, Judge Gilliam said his examination “found that the true terms are adequately and accurately disclosed in the advertisements.”
The FTC sued DIRECTV, which is a subsidiary of Dallas-based AT&T, in 2015 for allegedly failing to disclose key terms regarding its discounted pricing, including that the term of the contract is two years, that there is a $20 early termination fee and that users must affirmatively cancel subscriptions to premium channels, such as HBO, to avoid monthly charges.
In a nine-day bench trial last August, the FTC claimed that millions of Americans were financially injured as a result of DIRECTV’s advertising efforts. The agency sought $3.95 billion in restitution.
Lawyers for AT&T, which include Dallas trial attorneys Jeff Tillotson and Pete Marketos, argued that the federal government completely failed to prove its case.
“No FTC witness testified to any false impression conveyed by a DIRECTV advertisement,” AT&T lawyers told the judge in a motion to have the case dismissed. “No survey or other empirical data was offered to prove a false impression conveyed by any single advertisement — let alone all of them. The FTC introduced no false statements by DIRECTV, no consumer testimony, and no evidence that customers signed up for DIRECTV as a result of misleading advertising.”
Judge Gilliam agreed. He said the FTC “failed to establish that there was any misleading ‘net impression’ or even to identify clearly what it claims the net impression was.
“Neither a facial review of these advertisements nor the FTC’s extrinsic evidence established that these materials are likely to mislead a reasonable consumer,” the judge wrote.
“The evidence at trial conclusively established that the FTC failed in its case-in-chief to meet its burden of proving a Section 5 claim based on any of DIRECTV’s non-website advertisements,” Judge Gilliam wrote. “The FTC’s ambition in attempting to show that over 40,000 advertisements were likely to deceive substantially exceeded the strength of its evidence: this case did not involve the type of strong proof the Court would expect to see in a case seeking nearly $4 billion in restitution, based on a claim that all of DIRECTV’s 33 million customers between 2007 and 2015 were necessarily deceived.”
While Judge Gilliam dismissed most of the FTC’s claims against DIRECTV, he did not dismiss the government’s allegations that the programming provider may have had misleading advertisements on the company’s website. But even then, Judge Gilliam told FTC lawyers that they have a steep hill to climb in proving those claims.
The judge set a hearing for Sept. 4 to discuss the remaining claims.
The victory is the second this summer for AT&T General Counsel David McAtee, who also oversaw the telecom company’s successful battle to defeat antitrust allegations brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Besides Tillotson and Marketos, AT&T also used lawyers from Sidley Austin in California, including partners Chad Hummel and Bridget Johnsen.


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HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have reminded Self Assessment customers that on Sunday 24 October, they have only one week left to submit paper tax returns and 100 days to go for online tax returns.
The Self Assessment tax return deadlines for 2020/21 tax year are 31 October 2021 for paper returns and 31 January 2022 if customers complete their tax return online.
More than 10.7 million customers completed a tax return by 31 January 2021, of those 96% submitted it online. Completing it online is seen as the quickest method and with around 100 days to go, customers have plenty of time to get it done.
Even if customers submit their completed tax return now, they do not have to pay any tax owed until 31 January 2022. Anyone worried about how to pay their bill has been urged to access support on GOV.UK.
Various payment options include:
Paying through a customers’ tax code (PAYE customers only)
Payment on Account
Setting up an online monthly payment plan (self-serve Time to Pay)
Pay by debit or corporate credit card
Pay at a bank or building society.
The 2020/21 tax return covers earnings and payments during the pandemic. Customers will need to declare if they received any grants or payments from the COVID-19 support schemes up to 5 April 2021 on their Self Assessment, as these are taxable, including:
Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)
Other COVID-19 grants and support payments such as self-isolation payments, local authority grants and those for the Eat Out to Help Out scheme
Find out more about Self Assessment
Find out more about how to declare taxable COVID-19 support in your tax return if you are self-employed, in a partnership or run a business.
The £500 one-off payment for working households receiving tax credits should not be reported in Self Assessment.
Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said: “There are 100 days left to complete your tax return, but you don’t have to wait for the 31 January deadline. Why not do it now and get it out of the way? Visit GOV.UK and search ‘self assessment’ to find out more.”


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What local nonprofit Avocados From Mexico’s head of marketing Ivonne Kinser calls an avocado “fever” has recently led the company into new territory with the launch of a rewards program and clothing line.
Googling “avocado-related clothing and products” results in millions of hits—everything from avocado-themed bedding, shoes, and toys. Searching just within Amazon brings up more than 40,000 results.
Irving-based AFM, which represents thousands of avocado growers and 62 packers and holds 90 percent market share, wanted to capitalize on this demand. Due to its connection with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it cannot create monetized programs. So, selling avocado garb was out of the question. Instead, the team created a loyalty program that rewards avocado buyers with themed goodies.
“The more that [the customers] buy avocados in the store, come to our platform, and submit their receipts, they get points,” Kinser said. “And when they accumulate enough points, they can trade them in for avocado items. One avocado is one point.”
The program, called Avocado Nation, uses an AI platform to read consumer receipts, providing Kinser’s team with insight into the number of avocados bought and clues as to how consumers may be eating avocados based on other ingredients in the basket.
“It’s an opportunity for us to partner with other CPG brands or products,” Kinser said. “It gives the machine and the algorithms a lot of insights into what is the [consumer’s] eating behaviors or habits, and then we can serve content accordingly like recipes and that sort of thing.”
Avocado consumers can also gain points by posting AFM or avocado-related content on their social media accounts. Reward options span a wide variety of green goodies, including a custom clothing line created through a partnership with Florida designer Mary Vargas.
“The fashion designer specializes in prints, and these prints are in themselves very unique and beautiful,” Kinser said. “So, you have a very nice, very well-designed print that’s very unique and you [can’t] find anywhere else.”
The line includes six pieces of vibrant, avocado-centered women’s activewear—a nod to AFM’s health-conscious target audience.
“We go after the consumer who is health-conscious because we’re a healthy product, and the consumer who is health-conscious, typically, is also fitness-oriented,” Kinser explained. AFM’s consumers are mostly women ages 24 to 55, and for them, “fashion is a passion point,” she said.
“It was a very careful process to come up with something that even in those 50 million searches, you’re not going to find [anything similar],” she continued.
With plans to launch another collection next year, AFM intends to continue to design women’s apparel for their demographic, and while talks are still early, Kinser did allude to the possibility of eventually partnering with a third party who could manufacture these original designs for their own profit.
“We would not want to profit from that because we’re not allowed to profit, but we just want these to go mainstream and give the opportunity to anyone who wanted to have it,” she said.


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Consumers are venting their anger at Microsoft for its new method of getting them to download Windows 10, calling it “insidious,” “malware” and “a new low” in the 24 hours since WND reported it.
The “X” on the Windows 10 promotion box being forced onto computers around the world no longer closes the window and gets rid of the offer.
Instead, it launches the download, forcing computer owners to sit and wait an hour or more for the installation of a software program that some people love but many don’t want, in part because it makes personal files and data available to Microsoft.
Some of the reactions:
- Patrick Klepek at Kotaku called it “insidious” and said: “With Windows 10, every writeup is another story of annoyance about how Microsoft has handled this process … for every person they drag through the upgrade process, they seem to piss off another 10. That’s not a good ratio.”
- The same site pointed out a software developer checking out of a hotel to return home was delayed because the hotel’s computer “decided to go for it & is currently in the middle of updating itself to Windows 10.”
- One computer user told WND: “I, too suffered at the hands of this MS b.s. Lost all files from 2011 to present and the machine won’t work with my printer, the drivers aren’t even compatible with windows 10. Going back to windows 7 so I can download my files from the back-up site I use. That means time and it may mean it will cost extra to get someone with the software to roll me back, plus 2 days without a pc. (There wasn’t a windows 7 rollback option on my machine.) I too am looking at a Mac as a result of this take-over!”
- From another: “Microsoft hijacked my desktop computer one morning this week and the Windows 10 upgrade was already in progress. I couldn’t even turn my computer off. Having no other alternative, I accepted the upgrade which I hate! My husband declined the upgrade a few days later, and it disabled his computer from getting online for almost an hour. We had to unplug our router twice before he was finally back online. We were appalled at Microsoft’s tactics for this invasion of our computers!”
- Another unleashed: “You haven’t even begun to see the hell that W10 can put you through. Wait until the update arrives (not sure which one it is, but you will know that it has ‘occurred’) that knocks out your internet access. Yup, you read that correctly. Apparently there is a update that somehow erases all of your internet protocols (and in some cases, IF you have a private network) ALL of your static IP addresses (alert your IT staff NOW, if they haven’t heard about this problem).”
- At BGR.com, Chris Smith wrote: “Microsoft just turned Windows 10 into malware.” He explained. “The company has come up with its most evil trick yet to get you to update your PC to Windows 10, and it’s based on the same methodology hackers use to trick people into installing malware.”
- TechRepublic said the company’s pop-up “that pushes people to upgrade to Windows 10 violates the company’s own guidelines on Windows app design.” Those guidelines state: “The Close button on the title bar should have the same effect as the Cancel or Close button within the dialog box. Never give it the same effect as ok.”
- ComputerWorld’s Gregg Keizer agreed, pointing out that the firm’s website design guidelines affirm that “close” should mean “close.” “Not only is (the company’s change) contrary to decades of convention and user expectations, but it’s a change from past behavior of the dialog.” He explains even Microsoft has advised customers, “Never slick ‘Agree’ or “ok’ to close a window that you suspect might be spyware. Instead, click the red ‘x’ in the corner of the window.”
- At Business Insider, Rob Price called Microsoft’s actions “malware tactics.” He quoted technology journalist Adam Turner saying: “Its tactics come straight from the malware playbook, using deceptive pop-ups to trick people into installing software they clearly don’t want. If any other business did this to you you’d walk away in disgust, but Microsoft knows it can treat people with contempt and generally get away with it.”
- In one case, Microsoft interrupted a live weathercast:
- Henry Casey at Laptop wrote, “This trickery is the kind of nonsense that obliterates consumer faith in Microsoft, and will push customers away to Macs or Chromebooks.”
The complaints went on for pages.
BBC News said it had been told by Microsoft that it had “u-turned” over the changes.
“Based on ‘customer feedback’, Microsoft said it would add another notification that provided customers with ‘an additional opportunity for cancelling the upgrade’,” BBC reported. “‘If the customer wishes to continue with their upgrade at the designated time, they can click ‘OK’ or close the notifications with no further action needed.'”
Wayne Williams at Betanews said: “This move generated a huge amount of negative press, and Microsoft says that it will be modifying the popup based on ‘customer feedback.’ The exact form of this change remains to be seen.”
But Microsoft, contacted again by WND, released only a statement promoting its products: “Windows 10 is our best and most secure operating system ever. With the upgrade offer ending on July 29th, we want to help people upgrade to the best version of Windows.”
Pressed for a response or comment on the negative feedback, the company said no statement was available.
WND’s report Tuesday explained how Microsoft changed the coding on the “X” so that clicking it now instructs MS to “upgrade” a computer to Windows 10.
The two options on the page, “OK” and “Upgrade Now,” do the same thing as the “X.”
To avoid the forced “upgrade,” a user has to go into the fine print.
Inside a logo box in the ad is a scheduled date for a mandatory upgrade. The user must look in the tiny type just below the line and find where it says “here” and click on that to avoid the upgrade.
Tech world reaction has been strongly negative to what one analyst called a “deceptive” action.
But is Microsoft concerned? Not really.
Multiple requests from WND on Tuesday for answers to pertinent questions were met with links to company promotions for Windows 10.
Then there was Microsoft’s offer several times to go “on background” to answer questions, an offer WND declined. It apparently would have been information a reporter is supposed to hear about Windows 10, but not the general public.
PC World originally addressed the issue under the headline “How Microsoft’s tricky new Windows 10 pop-up deceives you into upgrading.”
Senior editor Brad Chacos explained what ticked him off.
“This morning, the unthinkable happened: My wife, an avowed PC user who long ago swore to never touch an Apple device, started shopping around for a Mac Mini. And it’s all thanks to Windows 10. Or rather, the nasty new way that Microsoft’s tricking Windows 7 and 8 users into automatically updating to Windows 10.”
He said he already was no fan of Microsoft’s “strongarm” tactics, writing several months ago when Microsoft said buyers of Intel’s Skylake processors “have to upgrade to Windows 10 in the next 18 months, or forgo all but the most critical security patches – and those will be available to Windows 7 and 8.1 users only if said patches don’t ‘risk the reliability or compatibility’ on non-Skylake systems.”
Chacos called the news a “bombshell.”
“Making sure new hardware works with old operating systems no doubt consumes valuable time and resources, and hardware and software are intertwined now more than ever before, but aggressively forcing users (including businesses) to upgrade to Windows 10 before the end of the operating system’s initial stated support cycle ends is unprecedented in the Windows world,” he said.
“That nasty trick resulted in my wife’s beloved Windows 7 PC being sneakily upgraded to Windows 10 this morning. Sure, she has 30 days to roll it back to Windows 7, but she feels so betrayed – like Microsoft forcibly removed her control over her own PC – that she’s strongly considering embracing the Dark Side and buying a Mac, instead.”
Find the button that lets you decline the upgrade in this image from Microsoft:


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April 20, 2013
TORONTO, ON, Apr. 20, 2013/ Troy Media/ – Manufacturing sales in Ontario increased in February but remain on a declining trend from the post-recession high set last June.
This mainly reflects sales of transportation equipment, mostly new motor vehicles and parts which, in turn, is mostly related to exports of new motor vehicles and parts to the United States.
Manufacturing sales in Ontario totalled $22.4 billion in February, seasonally adjusted, up 3.3 per cent from January. Growth was led by new motor vehicles and parts, although sales of chemical, plastic, food and machinery products also increased.
Lower commodity prices brought down manufacturing sales of primary metal, fabricated metal and petroleum products. Transportation equipment sales totalled $13.0 billion in the first two months of 2013, down 5.0 per cent from the same period last year.
That is bad news given that sales of new automobiles and light trucks are up robustly in the United States. Ontario’s automobile manufacturing sector is losing market share in the U.S.
We forecast a declining trend in the U.S./Canadian dollar exchange rate over the next five years, which will lessen but not eliminate Ontario’s declining market share.
Consumer price inflation in Ontario remained low by historical standards in March as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inched up 0.3 per cent from February and 1.0 per cent from March 2012.
Prices for food and transportation declined in March but food prices are up from a year ago. Prices for clothing and footwear increased in March but declined year-over-year. Slower housing sales, high levels of household and government debt, and minimal growth in imports and exports have reduced the upward pressure on consumer prices over the past year.
CPI inflation will remain moderate in 2013. No material rise in underlying inflation will occur until the economy is operating with much less excess capacity. We forecast Ontario consumers will see CPI inflation of 1.9 per cent in 2013 and 2.3 per cent in 2014, following a 1.4 per cent increase in 2012.
Ontario’s re-sale housing market perked up in March, providing further evidence last year’s swoon in activity has bottomed out. Housing sales via the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) totalled $6.23 billion, seasonally adjusted, up 2.8 per cent from February and the fourth consecutive monthly gain. Unit sales increased 2.0 per cent, while the average sale price increased 0.8 per cent.
On an annual basis, we forecast the dollar volume of MLS housing sales will inch down 1.6 per cent in 2013 following a 3.1 per cent increase last year before rising 3.7 per cent in 2014 and 6.3 per cent in 2015. Unit sales are forecast to decline 2.4 per cent this year following a 2.1 per cent decrease last year, before rising 1.4 per cent in 2014 and 4.2 per cent in 2015. The average sale price is forecast to inch up 0.8 per cent this year after increasing 5.3 per cent last year and to rise 2.3 per cent in 2014 and 2.0 per cent in 2015.
Recent growth in housing sales volume has varied among regions and has not occurred everywhere. Over half of Ontario’s board areas have seen rising sales, while the others have seen lower sales.
| Central 1 Credit Union
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Flite Is Out to Build a Better Widget For the Internet Ad Industry
(Page 3 of 3)
an authoring interface where brands could drop in their own videos and other media and arrange them within the ad unit—see the video below for a taste of how the ad authoring tool works. The process was so much simper than building traditional rich-media campaigns that Widgetbox quickly signed up CBS, MSN, Bloomberg, Forbes, Federated Media, and other publishers as paying customers. As Flite, Widgetbox has fully transformed itself into a “Platform as a Service” company where users pay for access to the tools and analytics; the startup also stores the ads on its cloud servers and serves them up on demand.
In a weird way, Facebook—which had almost killed Widgetbox by drawing away software talent—is now helping to educate the same customers that Price wants Flite to reach. “In traditional Internet advertising, you have a brand, a brief for a seasonal campaign, a creative agency that builds some assets, and a media buy that sends them across the Web,” says Price. “This is a serial process that takes maybe two to six months. But with Facebook, a brand manager can come in in the morning, post a video to the fan page, share a picture, publish a poll question. It’s very easy for them to program content for millions of people. The brand marketing industry has taught people that you can do intra-quarter marketing, but Facebook has taught people that you can do intra-day marketing.”
As an example of this kind of intra-day marketing on Flite’s platform, Price points to a major technology company that offers a free Web-based e-mail system. (Price couldn’t name it, but its identity isn’t hard to guess.) “Today, you market e-mail accounts by making a banner that says ‘Get 5 gigabytes free’ and it takes six weeks, so everything you put into the market is six weeks old. But say Roger Federer lost at Wimbledon this morning—with Flite you can run a banner that says ‘Federer out at Wimbledon, sign up to e-mail this video to your friends.’ Tomorrow, that is going to be old news. The fundamental concept is that once you have a set of Web-based tools that make programming advertising as easy as programming a Facebook fan page, brands can become more agile and iterative.”
That may not be a message that everyone on Madison Avenue wants to hear. Price says the Flite platform drastically reduces the overhead that goes into building or refreshing an ad campaign. Translation: the role of agencies in preparing Internet ads could be drastically diminished, though someone still needs to shoot videos and write copy. “Where brands are going to need help from agencies is being smart about audiences and how much [advertising] do you buy,” says Price. “But I don’t think they have a lot of value in building the current creative that they’re producing.”
If there’s a weakness in Flite’s model, it’s that the finished ads—which are almost always 300 pixels wide and either 250 or 600 pixels high, to fit in the standard slots for Web ad units—have a cookie-cutter feeling, featuring the same formula of videos, tabs, and buttons no matter what brand is being featured (tour Flite’s ad showcase to see what I mean). Even Don Draper might have trouble making them sexy. But it may be that Flite canvas simply hasn’t yet found its Rembrandt; the first agencies that figure out how to put Flite’s platform to more creative use could be in a good position to offer their own clients a more flexible, responsive set of services. McCann Worldwide, one of the world’s largest ad agencies, is already a Flite customer, so “there is evidence that the creative agencies want to embrace this change,” Price says.
Revenue at the startup quadrupled between 2009 and 2010, and is on course to more than double between 2010 and 2011. Price didn’t share the actual numbers, but he says the company is not far from being profitable. And given the scale of the potential market, there’s a lot more upside for Flite’s investors now than there was in early 2009, before that fateful e-mail from LinkedIn. “I think there is a chance to totally redefine a $20 billion market,” says Price. That’s what you call building a better widget.
Here’s a video illustrating the real-time editing capabilities of Flite’s ad platform.
Trending on Xconomy
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This is What’s Trending Today…
Cedric Vaivre owns a bakery in the small French village of Lusigny-sur-Barse. Last summer, Vaivre decided to keep his business open every day of the week to serve visitors to the area.
That decision may cost him.
The French department of Aube has fined the 41-year-old baker 3,000 euros, or about $3,600. Aube officials say he violated a local employment law. The law says bakeries cannot be open seven days a week. Instead, bakers must take one day of rest.
European media reports say Vaivre is refusing to pay the fine. And many in his community are on his side. About 2,000 people have signed an official message of support for Vaivre.
Lusigny-sur-Barse sits near several beautiful lakes, as well as a protected park area. In fact, Vaivre’s calls his bakery “La Boulangerie du Lac,” or “Bakery of the Lake.”
Travelers from across France visit the area during summer months.
The Guardian newspaper reported that, until 2016, local officials had permitted Vaivre’s shop to stay open every day of the week during the summer. However, officials refused Vaivre’s request to do the same last summer. He stayed open anyway.
Eric Scherrer is an official with the French retail union CLIP-P. He explained that the law for bakers and others in the food industry is meant to protect people from working too much.
Scherrer told France’s The Local news site, “It’s an artisanal trade where people can work a lot, much more than the legal limits.”
But the town’s mayor, Christian Branle, is supporting Vaivre. Branle told L’Est Eclair newspaper, “In a tourist area, it seems essential that a business can open every day during the summer. There’s nothing worse than closed shops when there are tourists.”
And that’s What’s Trending Today.
I’m Phil Dierking.
Ashley Thompson wrote this article based on reports by The Guardian and French media. Caty Weaver was the editor.
Words in This Story
bakery - n. a place where bread, cakes, cookies, and other baked foods are made or sold
retail - n. the business of selling things directly to customers for their own use
artisanal - adj. relating to making things by hand
tourist - n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure
essential - adj. extremely important and necessary


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A Check вЂn Go shop in Santa Fe provides loans that are payday.
A former state senator who’s assisting lead the battle against high-interest payday as well as other little loans stated Monday that the bill to cap prices at 36 % is dead.
вЂњThe governor would veto it anyhow,вЂќ said Sen. this is certainly former Steve, co-chairman of this brand brand brand New Mexico Fair Lending Coalition, talking about home Bill 26, sponsored by Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque.
But Fischmann, a Las Cruces Democrat, stated supporters for the bill have been in negotiations with particular areas of the industry which are supporting another bill geared towards managing organizations that provide little loans at high interest levels.
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вЂњI think we have been getting near to a deal,вЂќ Fischmann said. That bill, HB 347, sponsored by Rep. Patty Lundstrom, D-Gallup, would in effect set maximum interest levels of 175 per cent.
Both bills had been talked about Monday into the House company and Industry Committee. Nevertheless, committee Chairwoman Debbie Rodello, D-EspaГ±ola, asked the committee not to ever vote so that you can supply the two edges time and energy to negotiate.
Roybal Caballero stated following the conference that she’s got maybe maybe perhaps perhaps not experienced on any negotiations. Fischman said the majority of the negotiations have already been between him and Dan Najjar, a lobbyist for Axcess Finance, a self-described вЂњleader when you look at the sub-prime automobile finance industry.вЂќ
Within the decade that is past therefore, the Legislature has over repeatedly considered but declined to accept legislation to cap interest levels on payday and comparable little loans. The industry has battled the legislation with top-shelf lobbyists and significant campaign efforts to lawmakers.
Lundstrom’s bill would produce a fee-based funding framework for several tiny loans under $5,000. It could expel one-month, one-payment payday and vehicle name loans. Loans for under four months is forbidden. But and even though rates of interest in HB 347 aren’t spelled away, the fee towards the debtor for installment loans beneath the bill would in place be about 175 per cent.
Though he would like a lowered rate of interest, Fischmann stated 175 % could be far better for New Mexicans as compared to status quo. вЂњIt would save yourself customers a huge amount of money,вЂќ he stated. вЂњThe typical price of these loans is approximately 347 per cent.вЂќ
Relating to a financial effect research of HB 26, their state banking institutions Division has stated that interest levels differ extremely in brand brand brand New Mexico plus some are astronomical.
Automobile name loans can move up to 456.3 %, while unsecured installment loans might have interest levels of greater than 900 %. Secured installment loans may have interest levels amounting to almost 5,000 per cent, while вЂњrefund anticipationвЂќ loans can soar to 9,000 per cent.
A dozen states have actually legislation restricting interest levels to 36 per cent or less, Fischmann told your house company and Industry Committee. вЂњThese states never have skilled cataclysm that is economicвЂќ he said.
Albuquerque attorney Nick Madison told the committee he usually needs to counsel consumers who’ve been victims of вЂњpredatory loans.вЂќ He included, вЂњThis state is an all natural test in exactly what takes place when you’ve got unregulated predatory lending.вЂќ
Laurie Weahakee for the Native American Voters Alliance talked against Lundstrom’s bill, saying high-interest loans have experienced a negative impact on Indian communities. She stated she ended up being concerned because beneath the bill, numerous loans would not be reported to your state.
Former House Speaker Raymond Sanchez, a lobbyist when https://paydayloansmissouri.org/ it comes to customer Installment Loan Association, told the committee just exactly just just how their daddy could get a loan n’t from the bank as he ended up being beginning a company after World War II. He stated Roybal Caballero’s bill вЂњwould get rid of loans for individuals like my dad.вЂќ
Former Republican state Sen. Mickey Barnett, a lobbyist for Independent Finance Association, talked in support of Lundstrom’s bill. He stated he generally prefers that the market industries that are regulate. вЂњBut sadly [in the section of payday loans], the marketplace does not act as well when I want it,вЂќ he stated.
High-interest creditors while the associations that serve them added significantly more than $118,000 to lawmakers, other applicants and PACs in 2015 and 2016, in accordance with a written report posted Monday by brand new Mexico In Depth.
The buyer Lending Alliance, a trade industry relationship contributed $32,950. The following biggest factor ended up being FastBucks, which provided $21,050. Later this past year, a Santa Fe region judge ordered FastBucks to cover significantly more than $32 million in restitution to clients for unjust and unconscionable company methods.


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We have previously informed you of many investment news about meditation applications, which have become very popular in 2019. Meditation applications, not only receiving investments, also generate significant revenues in app stores.
According to information shared by application analysis firm Sensor Tower,the 10 most popular meditation applications from application stores generated $195 million in revenue in 2019.
By comparison, meditation practices generated $8 millionin 2015, $19 millionin 2016, $55 million in 2017 and $128 million in 2018. In short, meditation practices, which have been on their way for about 5 years, are becoming more and more popular every day.
When we look at meditation practices, we see that there are two applications that have generated revenue since 2015. The first and largest of these applications is the Calm app. According to shared information, the Calm app generated $92 million in revenue in 2019.
The Headspace app, the second-highest-earning meditation app and invested $36.7 million in 2017, generated $56 million in revenue in 2019. When we look at both the revenue and downloads, let’s also share the Calm and Headspace apps followed by the Breethe app.
Let us also remind you that meditation practices are still popular not only in abroad but also in our country. Meditopia, a domestic venture, received an investment of 2.3m euros last August. Meditopia, which has 5 million members in more than 60 countries, will not be surprised to be on this list in the future.


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BERKELY, Calif. (WIVB) — New research reveals chemical-free cosmetics and shampoos may be much safer for teenagers to use.
The issue is how chemicals affect their hormone levels.
The natural cosmetics and natural shampoos lower levels of chemicals that disrupt hormones.
The scientists at UC Berkely say teenage girls are at ‘particular risk’ because of their rapid development.
The girls also tend to use more of these products than the average woman.
Researchers tracked 100 Hispanic teens for three days. They used products labeled “chemical free.”
Even the brief break from their regular products was enough to lower chemical levels in their urine anywhere from 20 to 45 percent.
The team at UC Berkely said there’s growing evidence that links these hormone-disrupting chemicals with behavioral problems, obesity and cancer cell growth.
Natural may be better, especially for teens.


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ISLAMABAD: Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan, Adam Mulawarman Tugio has said that Pakistani entrepreneurs should play their payable role in promoting trade and investment in emerging Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) markets like Indonesia.
The Indonesian envoy said this while hosted a dinner in the honour of delegation of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) led by the RCCI President Chaudhry Nadeem A Rauf, including Group Leader RCCI Sohail Altaf, RCCI Senior Vice President Asim Malik, Vice President Tallat Mahmood Awan, former RCCI president Mohammad Nasir Mirza, former RCCI president Syed Asad Mashadi and Member Executive Committee Usman Shoukat, said a statement.
Mulawarman Tugio said, Indonesia has US$ 1 trillion annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) market, there are ample opportunities for the Pakistani business community for trade and investment to enhance the bilateral business ties with Indonesian traders, which could benefit the business community of both countries.
Indonesia emerged as the only economy of US$ 1 trillion in ASEAN and Islamic world and both the countries have great potential for cooperation in all fields including tourism, trade, e-commerce and defense.
He said Pakistan and Indonesia have great potential for cooperation in all fields including tourism, trade, textiles, auto mobile, pharmaceutical and e-commerce.
The envoy said that Indonesia has a rich culture of tourism and hospitality and the government wants to increase this sector to 10% of the annual national income, but due to the current wave of COVID- 19 ,“We have not been able to achieve our targets in the tourism sector, which we are trying our best to meet.”
Indonesia has Bali and other beautiful islands, which are the center of world tourism.
He said that there are many attractive opportunities for people going to Indonesia for tourism from Pakistan.
All tourism facilities in Indonesia including cheap hotel accommodation are affordable and suitable for foreign tourists, he said.
Indonesia can also share experiences with Pakistanis such as promoting its tourism and in this regard new avenues of cooperation can be opened between the two countries.
He said that Pakistan and Indonesia are among the most beautiful countries in the world and both countries can benefit from each other’s experiences.
He said that the automobile sector in Indonesia is doing a lot of work in car production and Indonesia is also exporting cars and other small vehicles.
In this regard, a lot of work is being done in the automobile sector with the cooperation of Japan, in which cooperation with Pakistan may increase in the near future.
“In the pharmaceutical sector, Indonesia buys its raw materials from the local market, so there is no issue of cost of doing business and our pharmaceutical products are cheaper than other countries,” he said.
The Pakistani pharmaceutical sector in this regard can work in the Indonesian market in this sector and it can open new avenues of cooperation.
He said that the huge market of ASEAN countries with a population of 650 million has huge economic opportunities for Pakistan. which are being discussed in both the countries.
He said that Indonesia is a diverse society, where all religions and cultures are respected. There are many Buddhist places of worship in Pakistan too.
In addition, Pakistan, an emerging country in the field of information, local youth have a lot of expertise in this field.
With online connections and a boost in Information Technology (IT), young people from both the countries benefit from each other’s experiences and skills to promote economic and cultural integration.
The Ambassador said that Pakistan and Indonesia are countries with large youth populations that can make their mark in the global e-commerce trade and create vast employment opportunities in both the countries.
He said Indonesia has set a US$50 billion e-commerce trade target by 2025 to connect with the biggest sector of global trade.
Ambassador said that Pakistan and Indonesia can be linked with e-commerce trade to increase bilateral trade as well as connect both sides’ youth in connection of business and trade.
Discussing the cultural and educational ties between the two countries, he said 11 percent of scholarships were awarded to Pakistani students this year, which was 52 percent of developing countries. He said this year 60 Pakistani students went to Indonesian universities to study.
He said that Pakistan and Indonesia have historical religious, political, diplomatic and economic ties, which can be used to further strengthen economic and trade ties between the two countries.
President RCCI, Chaudhry Nadeem A. Rauf called for enhanced cooperation between Pakistan and Indonesia in various sectors including Pharmaceuticals and automobiles and called for enhanced cooperation between the business communities of the two countries.
On this occasion, he suggested that the RCCI should hold a business conference in Indonesia in the coming months, on which the two sides hinted at initial talks.
He said that the pharmaceutical sector would lead this business conference and both sides agreed on this and hinted at more.
He emphasized that cooperation between the two countries in the automobile sector and in the sale and purchase of small vehicles could be enhanced.
Group Leader RCCI, Sohail Altaf on the occasion said that there was a need for exchange of business delegations between Pakistan and Indonesia in order to increase bilateral trade and investment opportunities.


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GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — The stereotypes are true. Many men do wait until the last minute to buy Valentine’s Day flowers, Galloway Florist & Gifts owner Kenny Marshall said.
Before he bought the floral shop on Sixth Avenue in 2007, he was one of them.
“I’m a last-minute person myself,” said Marshall, 52, of Galloway.
Marshall and his wife, Theresa, own Galloway Florist & Gifts, a business that has a long history in the area.
A U.S. Navy veteran who served from 1979 to 1983, Marshall has owned several other businesses. This first foray into the floral industry started when he was driving past the formerly named Godfrey Aschmann Florist that he would purchase.
“I was literally driving by and saw a for-sale sign. ... I was sort of in-between jobs,” he said.
Marshall bought the business — at first with the intention of running it as a garden and produce market — at a time that would turn out to be a tough one for retail and flowers, shortly before the recession took hold.
The floral industry took a big hit from the recession and its aftermath in New Jersey and the U.S. It has not yet recovered.
From 2007 to 2011, the number of florists in New Jersey dropped by nearly 29 percent, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns.
Annual payrolls fell even more — by about 46 percent, as fewer florists employed fewer people.
Marshall said the impacts were felt locally, too.
The economy cut into discretionary spending, and some of his clients who were casino workers and executives cut back their purchases, he said.
“Before you know it, it’s a domino effect,” he said.
Being in the business these days is “a matter of hanging in there,” he said.
“The place pays the bills. I make a little bit of money and basically put it back into the business,” he said.
Valentine’s Day is a huge time for florists as a whole, one of several holidays — including Easter, Mothers’ Day and Christmas — that can mean a flurry of flower buying for a short time.
The week leading up to Valentine’s Day, a sheet of his wholesale orders includes 800 red roses, 100 pink roses, 125 yellow roses, 100 white roses and an assortment of other flowers.
The average Valentine’s order he sees is about $75, he said.
At the business, Marshall answers the office phone. When he is out, he transfers calls to his cellphone, a sort of on-call florist.
Marshall said he does that for fear of losing customer calls in the early morning.
“Some people call first thing in the morning, and if they get an answering machine, they’re probably going to call someone else,” he said. “If I had missed that call, that’s one order I’m missing.”
Contact Brian Ianieri:


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Judges Dino DiPalma, owner and founder GTM D Consulting, and Deirdre Sartorelli, director and assistant dean of the Angle Center for Entrepreneurship at Endicott College, had a tough time on Saturday, April 10, when 11 Salem State University students pitched their creative and diverse business ideas to a virtual audience of students, faculty and community partners.
Congratulations to the 2021 Viking Business Pitch Competition winners:
- First prize went to Toiell Washington, a senior sociology major, who pitched “The Master's Tools,” a board game that teaches people about systems of oppression.
- Second prize went to Benine Mudymba, a second-year graduate student working toward an MS in Social Work, for “The Natural Sis,” a beauty consultation service.
- Third prize went to Katie Ciccolini, a senior business major for “The Salem Witch Subscription Box,” a monthly box that contains items from local Salem Witch shops. The theme of each box is based on the cycles of the celebration of pagan holidays.


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The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) officially ended its investigation into a fatal Tesla wreck on Thursday, choosing to pursue no further action against the automaker. During the course of the investigation, though, evidence was produced that seemed to prove what autonomous driving proponents have been saying all along: Robots make better drivers than humans.
According to data released by Tesla during the investigation, its AI-powered semi-autonomous driver assistance feature, Autopilot, has lowered the number of crashes among its drivers by 40%. In its report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) noted that, after Tesla’s Autosteer feature was installed, the rate of crashes dropped from 1.3 crashes per million miles to 0.8 crashes per million miles. The report looked at 43,781 cars, including Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles from model years 2014-2016.
On May 7, 2016, a Tesla driver was killed in a wreck while the car was operating in Autopilot mode, which was the focus of the recent investigation. The questions centered around whether or not the Autopilot feature failed, and if Tesla was to blame.
SEE: Tesla’s fatal Autopilot accident: Why the New York Times got it wrong
Early responses to the crash were varied, but many called on Tesla to revoke the features as a safety measure. Additionally, confusion around terms like self-driving cars, and what is actually involved with the technology, continued to muddy the conversations, as TechRepublic’s Hope Reese reported.
However, it seems that Tesla’s name has, in part, been cleared. Bloomberg quoted NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas, who said “Tesla is not under any active investigation after today.” And, as the NHTSA report stated: “NHTSA’s examination did not identify any defects in design or performance of the AEB [Automatic Emergency Braking] or Autopilot systems of the subject vehicles nor any incidents in which the systems did not perform as designed.”
It doesn’t seem to be stopping there, either. In a tweet reply, Tesla CEO noted that the carmaker is targeting a 90% reduction in crashes as the Autopilot software continues to mature.
While the USDOT investigation has closed, another investigation of the same fatal accident by the National Transportation Safety Board is ongoing.
Tesla has long been one of the leading automobile manufacturers in the autonomous/self-driving car space, and the company announced back in October that every Tesla in production going forward would have the hardware necessary for autonomous capability. And, with multiple federal committees and partnerships popping up to support the technology, the next few years could see exponential growth in the space.
The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers
- The USDOT has officially ended its investigation into a fatal crash that involved a Tesla car operating in Autopilot mode, finding no fault in Tesla.
- During the investigation, data from Tesla showed that its Autopilot feature actually lowered crash rates by 40%.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that Tesla is targeting a 90% crash reduction as the software matures.


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Tomorrowland announces virtual festival will take place next month
Tomorrowland have revealed dates for the forthcoming digital 2020 festival, Tomorrowland Around The World.
Taking place on the 25th and the 26th July, the digital festival will be accessible by tablet, smartphone or laptop, and takes place across eight different Tomorrowland stages, including Atmosphere, Core, Freedom Stage, and Elixir. There will also be a mainstage with the festival’s 2020 theme, The Reflection of Love – Chapter 1.
Speaking about this year’s digital Tomorrowland, co-founder Michiel Beers said: “Tomorrowland Around The World is the result of a gigantic team effort of hundreds of people who are working around the clock to create a never-before-seen interactive entertainment experience. Since we started this project and all ideas came together, we immediately felt an enormous energy and lots of positivity from everybody involved.”
“For us it’s about re-inventing the festival experience, but we truly believe that we can bring the spirit of Tomorrowland and entertainment at the highest level to people and homes around the globe. We hope that hundreds of thousands of people will unite in a responsible way,”
The line-up for the festival is yet to be announced, but Tomorrowland Around The World will also have a selection of interactive experiences to choose from, including inspirational webinars, games and workshops related to lifestyle, food, fashion and the Tomorrowland Foundation. Together with the performances, Tomorrowland Around The World will be a full day/weekend experience between 3PM and 1AM CEST.
The line-up for Tomorrowland Around The World will be announced on Monday 15th June, and tickets starting at €12.50 will go on sale on Thursday 18th June via the Tomorrowland website.


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Fresh snub for Sports Direct
Tension deepens between the City and the retailer as investors decline offer of 46m more shares
Institutional investors have delivered a further snub to Mike Ashley, the billionaire Sports Direct founder, after it emerged today that more than 46 million shares available under last month’s float had not been sold.
The move threatens to blow open the rumbling dispute between the City and Mr Ashley, who sparked a backlash this week by buying a minority stake in Adidas in his own name rather than the company’s.
Shareholders are furious over corporate governance standards at the group and claim that the finance director of Sports Direct has failed to attend a series of meetings.
More than 46 million shares in the sports retailer were available to investors under the over-allotment option, or greenshoe, held by Merrill Lynch, the banker of the IPO.


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Tickets for our trip to Leyton Orient on Tuesday 11 February (7:45pm) are now on sale.
The Stags have received an allocation of 256 tickets for the match. Prices are as follows:
Senior (65+): £18
*Concession price is set for those aged 18-24, students, unemployed supporters and current employees of the armed forces and emergency services.
Tickets are available to purchase on matchday from Leyton Orient but prices will go up by £2 in the adult and senior categories.
The last date that the club can post tickets for this fixture is close of play on Wednesday 05 February. Online ticket sales will cease at midnight on Monday 10 February. Tickets will go off sale from the One Call Stadium ticket office at midday on Tuesday 11 February.
Supporters can purchase tickets by visiting our ticket office on Quarry Lane, by calling 01623 482 482 (option 1) or online via stagstickets.co.uk.


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Increase check-ins with 33% by investing 1.000$
Rick Wion, head of Social Media at McDonald’s, believes strongly in organizing small pilot programs to see what works and what doesn’t.
This is how it happened: McDonald’s contacted Foursquare to sponsor their Foursquare day on April 16. The deal was very simple: McDonald’s would offer 100 giftcards to Foursquare users who checked into a McDonald’s restaurant. Rather than offer coupons to every person who checked into a McDonald’s that day, Wion decided to choose random winners. While not guaranteed a prize, many users checked into McDonald’s for the chance to win the $5 and $10 giftcards. Based on this campaign, McDonald’s saw an increase of 33% in check-ins from the day prior.
Another nice benefit: their number of followers and fans increased with 600.000!


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Sneak Peek at Disney Symphony of Colours Coming to Disneyland Paris
Early next year, Disneyland Paris is set to come alive with music and color with the arrival of the Disney Symphony of Colours.
As part of the festivities, Disneyland Paris will unveil a new drone show that will illuminate the night, a new daytime parade featuring the stories and songs of Disney and Pixar’s films, and Main Street, U.S.A. will come alive when Tinker Bell “wakes up winter”.
Although winter can oftentimes be a dreary affair, Disneyland Paris will be more magical and colorful than ever for those who walk through the turnstiles.
Disney Symphony of Colour Sneak Peek
Ahead of the arrival of the Disney Symphony of Colours, Disneyland Paris has given fans a sneak peek at what to expect.
In newly released concept art for the upcoming daytime parade, young children wave as Mirable, Stitch, and Mickey make their way down Main Street, U.S.A.
True to Disney’s word, it looks like the new procession will be a star-studded affair!
The Disney Symphony of Colours parade will be the spiritual successor to Dream…and Shine Brighter and will debut on February 10, 2024.
A New Drone Show Will Premiere in January
Ahead of the arrival of the Disney Symphony of Colours on January 8, 2024, visitors to Disneyland Paris will be able to gaze in amazement as a new drone show illuminates the night above Disneyland Paris.
The resort promises a “palette of brilliant colours” and in concept art for the show, Peter Pan and a pirate galleon take flight above Disneyland Paris’ Cinderella Castle.
Based on the kind of drone shows that Disneyland Paris has put on before, I can’t wait to see what the resort cooks up!
Both the Disney Symphony of Colours parade and the new drone show will run through September of 2024, so plan accordingly!
As always, continue to check back in with MIckeyBlog. We will bring you updates on all the news coming out of Disneyland Paris
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon! Also, thanks for reading!


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World Bulletin/News Desk
U.S. producer prices recorded their largest increase in nine months in March as the cost of food and services surged, pointing to some pockets of inflation at the factory gate.
The Labor Department said on Friday its seasonally adjusted producer price index for final demand increased 0.5 percent last month after slipping 0.1 percent in February.
The increase in prices received by the nation's farms, factories and refineries was the largest increase since June last year and exceeded economists' expectations for only a 0.1 percent gain.
Producer prices excluding volatile food and energy costs rose 0.6 percent, the biggest rise since March 2011. The so-called core PPI for final demand had declined 0.2 percent in February.
The dollar trimmed losses against the yen on the data, while prices for U.S. Treasury debt trimmed gains.
With PPI now broadened to include services, it will over time track closely the Consumer Price Index. The increase in producer prices could be signaling some pickup in domestic inflation in the months ahead.
"Certainly it does raise the question whether inflation is finally on the rise," said Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC financial services in Pittsburgh. "It bears watching over the next three to six months to see whether the increase filters down to the consumer level."
Inflation has been running very low, allowing the Federal Reserve to maintain its expansionary monetary to nurse the economy.
Last month, food prices jumped 1.1 percent, the largest increase since May, after rising 0.6 percent in February.
Food prices were pushed up by a surge in the cost of pork, which saw its largest rise since August 2008. Sausage, deli meat and boxed meat prices rose by the most since August 1980.
Food prices have now risen for a third straight month, in part reflecting a drought in the West.
Services for final demand spiked 0.7 percent, the largest gain since January 2010, after falling 0.3 percent in February.
In the 12 months through March, producer prices advanced 1.4 percent. That was the largest increase in seven months and followed a 0.9 percent rise in February.
Another gauge of core producer prices - final demand less foods, energy, and trade services - rose 0.3 percent after ticking up 0.1 percent.
In the 12 months through March, core PPI for final demand rose 1.4 percent after increasing 1.1 percent in February.Last Mod: 11 Nisan 2014, 16:13


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Netatmo has announced its first product with matter. It is the opening contact for doors and windows. The Smart Security Sensor, as the device is officially called, can monitor if doors and windows are open or close. Next to that the sensor can detect motion in rooms.
The new smart security sensor uses the Thread wireless protocol and can be connected to hubs such as the Echo 4 or the 2nd generation Nest Hub once the necessary software updates have been launched. Netatmo has not yet announced when the new sensor exactly will be launched and how much it will cost.


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The name may have changed from Voice to Video on the Net, but much of the talk was still focused on voice including VoIP peering, wireless VoIP and IMS. On the content side:
– What do consumers want from mobile TV?: Operators aren’t sure, said Verizon’s director of telephony Bill Goodman. ComVentures partner Michael Rolnick said that content is key to help consumers overcome the confusion caused by so many devices and the disintermediation of core technology. Carriers will have to make themselves stand out: “it will all be on content. It’s really about the bundle consumers are going to get.”
— Video content models: Much discussion about building business around models like YouTube. Video start-ups are particularly dependent on venture funding because of bandwidth costs, but there’s some doubt about whether a lot of current start-ups are really viable. David Weiden, partner at Khosla Ventures, said there is a definite bubble with many web video businesses: “There are some businesses being built that I’m not sure could be stand alone businesses.” He also said he wouldn’t be surprised if a citizen journalism site with a good business plan also attracted some venture capital.
— Time and place shifting: Thom Kozik, director of business development for Yahoo! Media Group, said consumers are king but we don’t know how they will rule: “The way video on the net is exploding you would be foolish to predict how this is going to be used by consumers.” Some ABC news clips had recorded more views than any other video on Yahoo, he said, so short-form clips can’t just be used to try and drive traffic back to TV. ClipSyndicate VP Nancy Dunn said short-form had an “incremental value to reach audiences via syndication or other models.”
— TV people vs web people: The BBC’s Nico Flores said the telcos just don’t get the web. On the On Demand blog, he said they don’t see that much of the appeal of low-budget content comes from the way it connects people: “the complex interlinked whole, and the discursive flow that this enables”. But he also said web people don’t understand TV, with no distinction between “video” and “TV” as recorded and live content. “The common source of both blindnesses is the prevalence of the notion that media consumption is all about content, and not about engaging in practices (“watching TV”, “surfing the web”) for which content is only an important prop.”
This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.


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Rising Stars: The Hotspotter
If you’re not checking in, you must be checked out. Years after mainstream devices began relying on the Global Positioning System to pinpoint location, the technology can finally be put to use by the owner of one of these devices instead of their operators and service providers. (See “Here, There, and Everywhere,” from CRM’s January 2010 Innovation Issue, for more.) As a result, a wave of startups is vying to provide information about where customers are and what they’re doing. The early leader is Foursquare, a service allowing a user to “check in” wherever she happens to be, whether it’s a bar, train station, conference session, or Heatpocalypse NYC 2010 (as a summer heatwave came to be known). The service crowns the most-frequent visitor at a given venue, but its uses are far more interactive, engaging, and social: Users provide tips or reviews that pop up when others inquire about a location, and earn badges through location- and brand-specific activities.
“It won’t be long before social CRM will be like real estate—all about location, location, location,” says Brent Leary, cofounder of consultancy CRM Essentials. “Foursquare is showing us how location-based applications [offer] more opportunities to connect at critical times to those we’re trying to build meaningful relationships with.” Foursquare’s early partners—more than 60 brands, from Starbucks to MTV—suggest the breadth of possibilities. NBC Universal’s The Today Show awards a badge to users who check in at the show’s summer concert series. The Wall Street Journal’s Foursquare tips link back to WSJ.com content about a given location, and check-ins at restaurants reviewed by the paper count toward badges. The IFC cable channel went a customer-centric step further, inviting users to suggest brand-relevant real-world locations that IFC then made badge-eligible check-ins.
Naming Foursquare a Rising Star is a “good choice,” says Michael Fauscette, group vice president for software business solutions at IDC, who notes the service’s “real opportunity in the local market and in the local search [and] data markets.” And Foursquare’s geolocation data, says Ray Wang, a partner at Altimeter Group, offers a “unique opportunity to improve the customer experience.” Vendors such as Awareness are already offering integrations. By July, just 15 months after debuting at South by Southwest 2009, Foursquare notched its 2 millionth user and 100 millionth check-in, appeared as one of Entrepreneur’s 100 Brilliant Ideas and Fast Company’s 10 Most Creative Small Businesses, and landed $20 million in venture capital pegging the company’s value at $95 million. Check that out.
Badges? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges
Location-Based Marketing Summit '10 — Day One: The opening keynote identifies the real value in location-based services, and urges marketers to rethink their reliance on Foursquare badges.


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Ernst & Young administrators have sold more Swallow Hotels and London
& Edinburgh pubs, as the break up of the London & Edinburgh Swallow
Five hotels and two pubs were sold today to Gelink Limited, saving 258 jobs.
Joint administrator Angela Swarbrick, said: ‘We are delighted to have been
successful in selling a further seven properties and securing jobs of employees
at these sites.’
The sale is better news for
Ernst & Young, which has
been selling and closing the group’s hotels and pubs since in a piecemeal
approach since it went into administration a month ago.
Three new partners and seven business restructuring advisers have been appointed to the new Preston office
Political and economic uncertainty behind the fall in confidence
Just Racing Services, operating company of the Manor Racing Formula One team has entered administration
Last year 16 oil and gas companies became insolvent, finds Top Ten firm Moore Stephens