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NAPLES - Michael Zeto derives his tough exterior from his days in Boston and Pittsburgh, but his mentality is all business.
The busy CEO and founding partner of Proximus Mobility has his hands full with his software company, a venture that recently earned him the 2009 Newcomer Award from the Collier Economic Development Council.
When Zeto and his partner, David Rippetoe, were working for a social software and mobile platform provider, they developed expertise and contacts in the social media and mobile arena. That experience prepared them for the world of mobile marketing.
"Working in that space, we were constantly being asked for creative ways that a retailer, brand or their advertising agency could leverage new ways to get connected with their target customers" in a saturated market, said Zeto, who earned his executive MBA from Florida Gulf Coast University in Estero.
Because mobile communications is a growing technology market that shows signs of unlimited growth in years to come, Zeto looked for a way to reach anyone's phone, regardless of carrier network or phone type.
He and partner Rippetoe came up with Proximus Mobility — a location-based marketing software and hardware solution. It allows retailers, destinations and venues to provide content and offers to consumers when they are within 200 feet to 900 feet of the point of purchase or point of influence.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi make a transfer of the information to consumers possible.
It is an attractive solution for retailers and corporations that always are looking for ways to reach new and existing customers.
"We have developed a patent pending solution that does this and have customers that are benefiting from the value of what we created," Zeto said. "And our new location-based enhancements ... will be game-changing for both retailers and consumers."
Location-based, or proximity, marketing via a mobile device has the potential to become a $6 billion industry in a few years.
"The retailer can offer coupons or other content to consumers in close proximity of their store or point of purchase that (encourages) the consumer to stop in, or while the customer is in the store they can take advantage of a promotion the retailer, merchant or venue is offering," Zeto said. "The retailer can also sell that advertising opportunity to one of its manufacturers."
Zeto said the consumer benefits because the offers are timely and relevant, unlike coupons that expire or that people forget to use. Customers can take advantage of the offer almost immediately or forward it to friends and family members. Consumers also can choose to post the offer to a social media site, which takes the offer viral — something retailers desire.
"The other reason everyone benefits is because to take advantage of this, you do not have to have a specific type of phone with a specific provider," Zeto said.
The Proximus solution works by allowing a marketer to attach content to a campaign, then set times and rotations to make available to consumers. The business sends it to a Proximus device so consumers can get it via their mobile device through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
For example, a marketing official at a popular women's retailer can send a video or coupon to Proximus devices in 300 of that retailer's stores throughout the world. A restaurant manager or owner could do the same for that one store to, for example, announce a surprise dessert special to diners already there.
Zeto's partner is in Sarasota but Zeto chose Naples for Proximus Mobility's home base. Zeto, 37, lives in Naples with his wife, Kate, and credits her for helping him stay focused.
"One thing about being an entrepreneur and going through this process is that you need vision and experience, but also a lot of support so I have been lucky enough to have my wife, Kate, behind me so on the days when it is tough she has made sure I don't lose focus and stay the course," he said.
Proximus Mobility is currently self-funded, but Zeto is seeking investors to pursue additional growth opportunities and hire supplementary staff in Naples.
"Our patent pending technology, contacts and early stage customers give us a first-mover advantage so the more capital we can bring in now and leverage wisely toward organic growth, the more success we will have," Zeto said. "We are currently leveraging relationships and working with people who understand the benefits of being able to connect via mobile with customers – location-based and proximity marketing spaces are very visible to executives right now."


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Comcast's Xfinity launching streaming video product
Comcast Corp. — Colorado's largest cable provider — said Tuesday it is launching its own streaming video service under its Xfinity brand later this week.
The Philadelphia-based telecommunications, media and entertainment giant (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) said that Xfinity Streampix will allow customers of its Xfinity video service to instantly view favorite movies and television shows, including past seasons of current shows and full series, on multiple TVs, computers and mobile devices.
Comcast said the new service is meant to complement iXfinity On Demand, XfinityTV.com and the Xfinity TV app, which already make more than 75,000 shows and movies available on TVs, computers and mobile devices.
The company didn’t say how many shows and movies are available on the service now, but said it will increase the number significantly in the coming months. It also will take the service to other devices, including Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 game console and mobile devices running Google Inc.’s Android operating system.
Half the programs now available through the service are available in high definition.
To launch Streampix, Comcast entered into licensing agreements with numerous programming providers, including its own NBCUniversal, The Walt Disney Co.’s Disney-ABC Television Group (NYSE: DIS), Sony Corp.’s Sony Pictures (NYSE: SNE), Time Warner Inc.’s (NYSE: TWX) Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and The Cookie Jar Co.’s Cookie Jar Entertainment.
Premium cable movie service Starz — a unit of Douglas County-based Liberty Media Corp. (Nasdaq: LMCA) — controls U.S. streaming rights to Sony and Disney's movie releases for the first nine years after theatrical release. Starz subscribers who access the channel via Comcast's Xfinity service already can stream premium content from those studios.
Peter covers education, energy, labor, technology and venture capital.
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According to a recent industry report, the neo-banking market of India is anticipated to grow by three folds by FY25 to reach $11.65 billion (almost Rs 92,000 crore).
According to a report by Grant Thornton Bharat, there is a sizable opportunity for neo banking to add value to a sizable segment of the customer base in India due to the market’s immense size, all the while utilizing the large talent pool at its disposal to develop high-quality technology-driven banking products.
The market for neo banking is well positioned to take advantage of the expanding digital economy and experience rapid growth thanks to a very active local market with significant upside in terms of the potential for revenue generation, it claimed.
At $3.42 billion as of FY22, the Indian neo-banking market is projected to increase at a three-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.5% to reach $11.65 billion by FY25.
Neobanks are branchless digital banks that engage with clients directly and offer a seamless banking experience.
Neobanks are creating their products with the approval of the relevant regulators, or curating and delivering completely online, specialized financial services products.
Currently, neither the RBI recognizes nor oversees purely virtual banks.
According to the report, the regulator must ensure clear regulation, regular oversight, and monitoring.
Reasons And Consequences Of India’s ‘Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)’ Sector Being At Loggerheads With New RBI Regulations
With more than 50% of the population under the age of 28, India’s growth story depends heavily on its youthful population. According to the report, the first generation of banking industry workers born into the digital age will determine future consumer trends.
The expectations of this generation regarding the products, services, and transaction experience from their banks are very different. They rarely visit branches for transactions.
The neo-banking sector may face difficulties from established players, their dependence on banks, security issues, regulatory ambiguity, increased competition from fintech, and super-apps that combine elements of e-commerce, payments, and financial services into one platform, according to Jaikrishnan G, Partner, Financial Services.


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StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void – Reclamation
Learn more about the Protoss as the release of Legacy of the Void draws nearer.
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SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports U.S inflation has increased by 7.9% in the last 12 months. This is concerning for small businesses in Santa Maria like Cubanissimo Cuban Coffee House & Cafe.
"It definitely has been difficult," said co-owner of the small business Chrystal Trenado. "Small businesses have been really taken a hit for the last two years. It's been rough."
Trenado said she has not increased her prices, but that could change because the increase of gas prices and inflation has been impacting her business.
"We are evaluating it, we're trying to see if this is this gonna be long term increase or this is going to be a short term increase," said Trenado. "We sort of have to do it on an item by item basis."


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Apple has announced June 29th as the debut date for its iPhone.
The iPhone combines three products — a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a cutting-edge Internet communications device. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it looks like it will redefine the state of the art of both mobile phones and MP3 players.
While the iPhone’s price ($499 plus a 2-year contract) may put it out of the reach of many musicians, it’s clear that the technology is something that musicians will have to face. Digital music is becoming more important than ever, as is mobile technology, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the technology in the iPhone is copied by other manufacturers within a few years.
The iPhone has been one of the most hyped new product introductions in recent years, but, in this case, it looks like the technology really is revolutionary.
Here’s Apple’s ad introducing the iPhone:


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Salesforce said planning sale of Mission Bay land in San Francisco
Salesforce.com Inc. is getting ready to sell 14 acres of land it owns in San Francisco's Mission Bay area, where it had planned to construct a new headquarters building, Bloomberg reports.
The property could attract tech firms in search of office space or other investors, Bloomberg said, citing an unnamed source.
The land is near the site of the five-alarm fire that gutted a BRE Properties development Tuesday night.
Salesforce bought the property in 2010 for $278 million, with plans to build new headquarters, but it has opted instead to lease space in San Francisco high-rises.
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UK’s gig economy workforce has doubled since 2016, TUC and FEPS backed research shows
03 July 2019
Research supported by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Foundation for European Foundation Studies (FEPS) reveals that the number of people doing gig economy work has doubled in the last three years.
The survey – carried out by the University of Hertfordshire with fieldwork and data collection by Ipsos MORI – shows that nearly 1 in 10 (9.6%) of working-age adults surveyed now work via gig economy platforms at least once a week, compared to around 1 in 20 (4.7%) in 2016.
The majority of gig workers don’t do this kind of work full time. Rather “platform work” is used to supplement other forms of income, reflecting that UK workers are increasingly likely to patch together a living from multiple different sources.
The term “platform work” covers a wide range of jobs that are found via a website or app – like Uber, Handy, Deliveroo or Upwork – and accessed using a laptop, smartphone or other internet-connected device.
Tasks include taxi driving, deliveries, office work, design, software development, cleaning and household repairs.
The survey also reveals that:
- Younger workers are by far the most likely to work in the gig economy. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of intensive (at least once a week) platform workers are aged between 16 and 34.
- 1 in 7 (15.3%) of the working age population surveyed – equivalent to nearly 7.5 million people – have undertaken platform work at some point.
- 6 in 10 respondents report buying the services of a platform worker at some point.
- A fifth (21%) of UK workers surveyed are notified digitally if work is waiting for them and a quarter (24.6%) use apps or websites to record the work they’ve done. Close to half of both groups were not platform workers, suggesting that gig economy practices are spreading to the wider economy.
These findings align with surveys carried out in other European countries, which show striking levels of platform work. Across Europe, the number of platform workers appears to be especially high in countries with high levels of informal work and low average earnings.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:
“The explosion of the gig economy shows that working people are battling to make ends meet.
“Huge numbers are being forced to take on casual and insecure platform work – often on top of other jobs. But as we’ve seen with Uber, too often these workers are denied their rights and are treated like disposable labour.
“The world of work is changing fast and working people don’t have the protection they need.
“Government must get wages rising to make sure everyone has a secure job that pays the bills. And everyone working for an employer must get basic rights like the minimum wage and holiday pay.”
Ursula Huws, professor of labour and globalisation at the University of Hertfordshire, said:
“In a period when wages have been stagnant, people are turning to the internet to top up their earnings.
“We see the Uber drivers and food delivery workers on our streets every day. But they’re only a small proportion of gig workers. They’re outnumbered by an invisible army of people working remotely on their computers or smartphones or providing services in other people’s homes.
“These results underline how important it is to tackle low pay and precariousness. But they also suggest that we need a new deal to provide basic rights for all workers in the digital age”
Justin Nogarede, Digital Policy Adviser at FEPS, said:
“Our research shows high levels of platform work across Europe. The latest survey results from the UK confirm this and indicate that platform work is gaining in importance.
“It’s high time to enact policies to ensure platform workers have access to social protection. We should break the link – often portrayed as inevitable – between platform work and precariousness.”
These findings are based on a survey of 2,235 UK residents, conducted by the University of Hertfordshire with fieldwork and data collection by Ipsos MORI in association with the TUC, UNI Europa and the Foundation for European Foundation Studies (FEPS). The full report is available here.


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Alphabet’s Google Cloud has accused Microsoft of anti-competitive Cloud computing practices and criticised imminent deals with several European cloud vendors, saying these do not solve broader concerns about its licensing terms.
In Google Cloud’s first public comments on Microsoft and its European deals its Vice President Amit Zavery told Reuters the company has raised the issue with antitrust agencies and urged European Union antitrust regulators to take a closer look.
In response, Microsoft referred to a blogpost in May last year where its president Brad Smith said it ‘has a healthy number two position when it comes to cloud services, with just over 20 percent market share of global cloud services revenues’.
“We are committed to the European Cloud Community and their success,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday.
There is intense rivalry between the two US tech giants in the fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar cloud computing business, where Google trails market leader Amazon and Microsoft.
Microsoft has offered to change its cloud computing practices in a deal with a few smaller rivals which in turn will suspend their antitrust complaints, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters this week. The move will stave off an EU investigation. “Microsoft definitely has a very anti-competitive posture in cloud. They are leveraging a lot of their dominance in the on-premise business as well as Office 365 and Windows to tie Azure and the rest of cloud services and make it hard for customers to have a choice,” Zavery said in an interview late on Wednesday.“When we talk to a lot of our customers, they find a lot of these bundling practices, as well as the way they create pricing and licensing restrictions, make it difficult for them to choose other providers,” he added.
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Zavery said individual deals struck with several smaller European cloud vendors only benefit Microsoft.
“They’re selectively kind of buying out those ones who complain and not make those terms available to everyone. So that definitely makes it an unfair advantage to Microsoft and ties the people who complained back to Microsoft anyway”.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


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On June 1, Major League Baseball (MLB) reporter David Adler announced the MLB organization established a long-term deal with the digital collectible company Candy Digital. The oldest American professional baseball organization is stepping into the non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles world and will start by launching a Lou Gehrig NFT.
MLB’s First NFT Will Feature ‘The Iron Horse’ Lou Gehrig
MLB, the professional baseball organization launched in the U.S. in 1903, has announced a long-term NFT deal with the Galaxy Digital-backed firm Candy Digital. The agreement with digital collectible company Candy Digital was revealed on Tuesday by MLB reporter David Adler. In a little over a month on July 4th weekend, MLB will launch the first NFT featuring the New York Yankees’ first baseman Lou Gehrig.
“The first NFT from MLB and Candy is a 1-of-1 NFT of Gehrig’s iconic ‘Luckiest Man’ speech that the Yankees legend delivered on July 4, 1939, at Yankee Stadium, after being diagnosed with ALS,” Adler detailed. “The Gehrig NFT will be released July 4th weekend, and proceeds from the sale will support ALS charities.”
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred detailed that the founders of Candy are “a dynamic group of executives with an impressive track record.” Manfred noted that MLB is thrilled to be the Galaxy Digital-backed firm’s first partner. Mike Novogratz, the founder of Galaxy Digital, is a Candy Digital board member and serves as a co-chair for the company.
“From trading cards to autographed balls, baseball fans have demonstrated their passion for the sport and its players through collectibles for decades,” Manfred said during Tuesday’s announcement. “In working with Candy Digital to offer NFTs to MLB fans, we’re delivering an exciting new addition to the robust baseball collectible market,” MLB’s Commissioner added.
MLB NFTs Aim to Broaden the Range
Candy’s co-chair Gary Vaynerchuk detailed that he’s always been a “lifetime collector” and he thinks creators and consumers will appreciate the partnership with the American professional baseball organization.
Vaynerchuk thinks that die-hard MLB fans will be the ones who enjoy these NFTs the most. “Especially the uber-passionate MLB community who craves collectibles and celebrating the iconic moments that makes this game so special,” Vaynerchuk said.
MLB’s announcement does disclose that it already makes NFT collectibles with the popular collectible card manufacturer Topps. But with Candy Digital, the NFT offerings can expand into a wide range of collectibles.
The company gives examples like “memorabilia-style NFTs, or baseball card-style NFTs, or artwork-style NFTs portraying big moments on the field, or NFTs of highlight plays.” Following the Lou Gehrig NFT, the MLB said the public can expect more NFT collectible sales in the future.
What do you think about the MLB getting into the NFT ecosystem with Candy Digital? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
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"We don't have enough supply for the demand," said Jones, who now doesn't have enough money to replenish the stock of dark-colored veils. "With our religion, it's not permissible for us to get loans from the bank, so it can be a problem for us to finance production."
As Jones learned, building a start-up as an observant Muslim in Philadelphia presents unique challenges, from identifying financial practices acceptable under sharia law, which bans interest-bearing loans, to deciding whether and how to compromise on selling forbidden wares such as pork, lottery tickets, and - if liquor sales were ever privatized - alcohol.
But it also, as the ZipNiqab shows, presents unique opportunities. Among them could be a market for the region's first Muslim credit union.
A coalition of businessmen who 20 years ago attempted to open such an institution - but ran out of gas inches from the finish line after failing to obtain federal deposit insurance - believe the time is right to revive that effort.
"2014 is the year, no question," said Aqil Sabur, who helmed the effort in the 1990s and is now leading its renewal. In the interim, he held a variety of public- and private-sector roles, including at the helm of the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corp., which was shuttered by the Nutter administration in 2009 following claims it had mismanaged its lending.
"Twenty years later, the 8-year-olds are 28-year-olds, the 35-year-olds have children with families, and they have the same exact concerns: How to buy a house without paying interest, how to finance their businesses, and basically just how to live a normal lifestyle within the tenets and commandments of their religion."
Sabur said the U.S. lags far behind other countries when it comes to the Islamic-finance sector, now worth $1.7 trillion globally, according to Ernst & Young.
A handful of American banks, such as Guidance Residential in Reston, Va., Devon Bank in Chicago, and University Bank in Ann Arbor, Mich., have begun offering sharia-compliant home mortgages. In lieu of interest, agreements may be structured as rent-to-own or as partnerships between bank and borrower, in which the borrower gradually buys out the bank's stake. But none of them are directly targeting this region's Muslims.
Sabur wants to offer the region's Muslims a holistic economic institution to address their broad spectrum of pragmatic concerns and spiritual mandates. For example, he said, adherents are ordered to pay a tithe, called zakat, and encouraged to establish trusts for their children and endowments for community institutions such as mosques. A credit union could assist with all of those transactions.
"The need is extremely critical," he said, "and it goes beyond financing."
G. Jamillah Pugh is a case in point.
"Our progress is kind of stagnated because we can't [take out loans]," said Pugh, 40. "We have to start smaller."
Take her house: Rather than seek a mortgage, a practice that Islam considers exploitative, she bought a cheap fixer-upper in North Philadelphia and lived there while rehabbing it.
Or, consider her husband's store, called If You Want It, We Got It, at Germantown and Erie Avenues. Pugh's husband and his brother spent 10 years as street vendors before partnering with a few other vendors and scraping together enough money to open up shop.
"When they first opened the store, they didn't have much in it," Pugh said.
As for Pugh herself, she quit her job outside the home when she got married, as tradition dictates. Since then, she's launched a series of home-based businesses: a lingerie line, a screen-printing business and, most recently, a halal cosmetics line, called Nafs, featuring hand and foot balm and perfumes.
Those, too, have been fraught with challenges, relying on payment plans from amenable vendors. Stocking enough inventory to grow her cosmetics business remains a hurdle.
"I would like to get my product in the supermarkets," she said. "But I have to have a certain amount of inventory and a display. That takes money, so for me it would be a slow, slow process."
That's not to say there aren't thriving Muslim-owned businesses here.
Marwan Kreidie, executive director of the secular Arab American Community Development Corporation, pointed to Steve Cousins, of Cousins Supermarkets. Kreidie said Cousins built his business without loans - even declining the city's offers of low-interest financing. And, rather than sell pork products directly, Cousins sublets space to a pork retailer.
Miles Davis - a native Philadelphian, Muslim, and dean of the business school at Shenandoah University in Virginia - also downplayed the financing issue.
"You should grow your business through sales, not loans," he said. "The reason people take debt financing is because they don't want to give up shares of their business. The Islamic way of financing is to partner with someone."
He said there are alternatives: venture capital, micro-lending, investing circles, vendor payment agreements, and support from entities such as the Small Business Administration. "These are all viable means that sometimes the Islamic community self-selects out of, because they don't think they can be part of these things," he said. "It's a matter of information."
It's also a matter for debate, said Salima Suswell, a member of the Universal Muslim Business Association of Philadelphia and owner of Evolve Solutions, a community-engagement consultancy.
Suswell said she herself has a mortgage, and she knows Muslim business owners who have taken loans. She said it's only the most orthodox who eschew them entirely.
"It's all a matter of your religiosity," she said. "There is varied opinion on the subject."
Speaking of debates, Kreidie said a new one is on the horizon if liquor privatization passes in Harrisburg. Store owners have been organizing against the reform. Some believe they'd have to sell alcohol to keep up with competitors; others, as franchisees, fear that chains like 7-Eleven would insist on it.
Davis, though, said there's plenty of opportunity in Philadelphia for Muslims to succeed - and that companies like ZipNiqab may be on the right track.
"I would compare this to the black American community before the elimination of Jim Crow," he said. "They opened up institutions that supported their needs. This is where the Islamic community should be headed."


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FDA approves new use for Avastin
SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration announced approval of a new use for Avastin (bevacizumab), to treat patients with persistent, recurrent or late-stage cervical cancer. The drug works by interfering with blood vessels that fuel the development of cancerous cells.
“Avastin is the first drug approved for patients with late-stage cervical cancer since the 2006 approval of topotecan with cisplatin,” said Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “It is also the first biologic agent approved for patients with late-stage cervical cancer and was approved in less than four months under the FDA’s priority review program, demonstrating the agency’s commitment to making promising therapies available to patients faster.”
Avastin is marketed by Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.
Little Seashell prepares for holiday season with new collection
TORONTO — Little Seashell Cards announced the launch of its French and English holiday 2014 cards. The collection uses hand-applied glitter and crystal rhinestone to showcase the colors and details.
Each card, which measures 6 by 4.5-in., includes a white premium envelope and is encased in clear protective bags. The cards carry a suggested retail price of $4.75. The complete collection can be viewed at LittleSeashellCards.com.
Pragma announces relaunch of Moxatag
NEW YORK — Pragma Pharmaceuticals announced the relaunch of Moxatag (amoxicillin extended-release tablets), 775 mg. The company acquired Moxatag from Shionogi Inc. in March 2014 and has been working to make the product available in time for the 2014-15 cold-and-flu season.
“Amoxicillin is the gold standard in treating strep pharyngitis. Simplifying the dosing regimen is a no brainer. Greater convenience to help patient compliance is key to ensuring effective antibiotic therapy,” a Pragma spokesperson said.
Moxatag is indicated for the treatment of tonsillitis and/or pharyngitis secondary to streptococcus pyogenes (S. pyogenes) in adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age or older, the company said. Fera Pharmaceuticals will manage the sales and marketing of Moxatag for Pragma.


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Hackers are taking purpose at meals companies
Lactaid, a imprint of lactose-free milk, is missing from the cabinets of supermarkets love Costco and Publix. The explanation: A cyberattack.
HP Hood Dairy, proprietor of Lactaid, did now not philosophize specifics, but cyber consultants notify it used to be doubtless a ransomware attack. The attack came about about two weeks ago, and Hood took all of its vegetation offline “out of an abundance of warning,” wrote Sarah Barrow, an organization’s spokesperson, in an email to Quartz Thursday. The vegetation are now up and running, but some possibilities can request a non permanent prolong find Lactaid merchandise in stores.
Hood Dairy is the most contemporary victim in a string of excessive-profile assaults on meals producers within the US, contributing to shortages amid tight provide chains and excessive costs. In October of 2021, a cyberattack hit vegetation and distribution centers owned by Schreiber Foods, one in every of the largest cheese producers in Wisconsin, which closed for five days. That left bagel shop owners in Unique York City scrambling to search out schmear. Within the summer season of 2021, a cyberattack on JBS, the largest meat producer globally, compelled the shutdown of all its US beef vegetation, which direction of nearly one-fifth of the country’s meat provide.
Why are assaults on meals companies going on?
If they’re profitable, cyberattacks on big meals producers contain critical earnings, stated Ken Westin, director of security strategy at Cybereason, a cybersecurity company. JBS paid an $11 million ransom in bitcoin to limit the attainable impact on restaurants, grocery stores, and farmers, reported the Wall Aspect dual carriageway Journal.
The assaults on meals companies are largely ransomware assaults, by which organizations are blocked from accessing serious records. That would possibly perhaps perhaps consequence in companies now not being in a recount to inform trucks where to shuffle or direction of invoices, stated Bob Rudis, chief records scientist at Lickety-split 7, a cybersecurity company.
Original-meals producers, which have to now not tech-savvy, are in particular vulnerable, Rudis stated, because if they shut down no revenue comes in and product would possibly perhaps additionally spoil speedy. Paying a ransom is “sadly what more or less occurs in reasonably a few instances,” he stated.
The upward thrust in ransomware instances within the US
In 2021, ransomware assaults rose 105% from the one year earlier than to 623.3 million globally, bigger than triple the quantity in 2019, according to SonicWall, an records superhighway cyber security company. The assaults are most prevalent within the US, followed by the UK.
Hackers old to steal neatly-liked deepest records from credit playing cards, stated Rudis. But that received more durable as credit companies grew more sophisticated, adding chips and varied security features. Attempting for a singular commercial model, hackers found that many organizations aren’t up to par on cybersecurity, he stated.
The form-up started spherical 2016 with focal level on colleges and municipalities and hospitals. A gigantic company love JBS has more the capability for a huge payout, stated Rudis. “So truly [they are] appropriate entrepreneurs while you imagine about it,” he stated.
There’s topic the assaults shall be traced aid to Russian hackers aiming to reason disruption to present chains that can perhaps grasp dire impact on the US economy. “That would possibly be occupy of perceived on the Russian aspect as retribution for the sanctions which are being imposed on their own country,” stated Westin. “That’s something we desires to be very eager about now.”


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In the ongoing ‘Straw Wars’, how the consumer is striking back
Consumer sentiment against single-use plastics – particularly plastic straws – is now so strong that businesses are finding it hard to ignore.
A few weeks ago I asked my teenage daughters where they would like to have dinner. “Anywhere that doesn’t use plastic straws!” they declared. It was a telling moment. Until recently, the main warriors against plastic straws were committed environmentalists – green campaigners have warned for years that single-use plastics cause alarming pollution, since they are ubiquitous and not biodegradable. (It’s estimated that somewhere between 200 million and 500 million plastic straws were used in the US each day in 2017.)
Plastic straws were so ingrained in consumer culture, particularly in America, that it was hard to imagine that they might ever disappear. Indeed, until 2018, when it announced its aim to get rid of plastic straws in all of its stores by 2020, Starbucks featured plastic green straws that became a familiar part of its brand.
Anti-plastic protests have exploded suddenly. Many cafes, bars and restaurants have committed to replacing the offending plastic with sippy cups and/or paper straws. Trendy joints in New York, such as Juice Press, have gone even further and are now selling reusable metal ones. Municipalities in liberal-voting places ranging from San Diego to Miami Beach are banning the plastic straw.
The issue even surfaced at the most recent debate for the Democratic presidential nominees, where some candidates were grilled about whether they would adopt a national ban (Kamala Harris said she favoured this, even though she admitted that she found paper straws unappealing because they are apt to dissolve).
The issue has become such a cause celebre that it has sparked an inevitable backlash. At the start of the summer Donald Trump decried the straw bans, and his campaign started selling bright red plastic Make America Great Again straws (tagline “Liberal paper straws don’t work”). His devoted base has bought so many of these that it has reportedly raised over US$800,000; welcome to the new cultural straw wars.
What should we make of this? Part of me feels tempted to cheer: Getting rid of single-use plastic is undeniably a good idea. However, I am also tempted to sigh. After all, one reason why straws have captured the public imagination – particularly among Instagram-loving teenagers – is that they fit so easily into our modern cultural definition of a campaign issue. Another reason is that the problem can easily be photographed (check out the pictures of the “plastic berg” of ocean plastic waste, or the horrifying viral video of a turtle with a straw stuck in its nose).
Depending on your response to these images, your tribal identity is readily on display. Most significant of all, the “battle” can be embraced without making too significant a lifestyle change; indeed, if you are a teenager, you can declare war on plastic straws without even needing parental permission.
However, there are many other – more serious – environmental issues facing the world that are not so readily visual and emotive. “Understand [that talking about straws] is exactly what the fossil-fuel industry hopes we’re all talking about,” Elizabeth Warren recently observed during the Democratic debates. “They want to be able to stir up a lot of controversy around your lightbulbs, around your straws and around your cheeseburgers, when 70 per cent of the pollution, of the carbon that we’re throwing into the air, comes from three industries.”
There is another thing that the straw wars clearly show: Consumer sentiment is now able to shift with startling speed, in a manner that businesses are finding it hard to ignore. One sign of this is the rapidity with which groups such as Starbucks have been forced to act; another is the degree to which chemicals companies are facing pressure from shareholders over the issue.
More specifically, these days investors who are affiliated with the so-called “environmental, social and governance” movement are getting more vocal about calling for a plastics rethink; indeed, a recent blog from MSCI, the index group, argued that companies dealing with “conventional virgin plastic” might soon be “the next stranded asset” for investors – in the sense of an investment that could lose its value as regulations change.
Most encouraging of all is that this pressure is also forcing the chemical giants to intensify their hunt for non-plastic alternatives. Hordes of entrepreneurs are jumping in too. “We can all see the rewards here,” one venture capitalist recently told a meeting of financiers, pointing out that the recent success of non-meat protein entrepreneurial groups is sparking a “feeding frenzy of interest in looking for the next green thing”. Government policy change is being amplified by the profit motive.
So cheer – or sneer – at the straw wars but also note the degree to which shifts in public sentiment are causing real business dislocations. And then ask yourself: If attitudes towards plastic straws have changed so fast, what might be the next big campaigning flashpoints? Sometimes symbolism does pack a financial punch; even when it comes from a pouty teenager.
By Gillian Tett © 2019 The Financial Times


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Telecommunications equipment maker Scientific-Atlanta warned that its first quarter earnings will not meet expectations, attributing the shortfall to weakness in the international markets.
The company announced that overseas weakness continues to affect its sales and that it expects its sales for the first quarter will be approximately $257 million compared to the year-ago quarter sales of $295 million.
Scientific-Atlanta said these developments will have a "significant impact" on the company's first quarter earnings. The company reported that it anticipates that earnings per share will be in the range of 2 cents to 5 cents. A consensus of Wall Street analysts expected the company to earn 22 cents a share, according to First Call.
Shares of Scientific-Atlanta fell 3.55 percent yesterday to close at 20.38. The stock has traded as high as 27.94 and as low as 14 during the past 52 weeks.
The company reported that international sales were approximately $54 million, or 21 percent of total sales, compared with $116 million, or 40 percent of total sales, in last year's first quarter. Compared to last year's first quarter, international sales were down $62 million, or 54 percent, with major declines in all nondomestic regions, including a $38 million decline in Asia Pacific. Although sales from the Asia Pacific region remained flat compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998, sales from Europe and Latin American declined approximately $19 million compared with the fourth quarter.
Domestic sales grew approximately $24 million year over year, or 13 percent, but the growth was not enough to overcome the decline in international sales.
Scientific-Atlanta said the fall in international sales was due primarily to softness in the company's satellite and transmission businesses. The shortfall in the company's satellite operations was caused by delays in shipments of PowerVu digital compression systems in India.
The company was also hurt by the loss or deferral of customer funding for some orders in Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific, and by the slowness in cable TV related satellite activities abroad.
Scientific-Atlanta said it expects to continue to experience softness in its satellite business because of its significant reliance on international markets.


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Alibaba Group reported its earnings for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 today. Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai opened the company’s analyst call with his thoughts on the figures, Alibaba’s New Retail strategy and how its investments position the group for future growth. The transcript follows:
We had excellent year in fiscal 2018. Overall revenues grew 58% year-over-year, and Taobao and Tmall GMV accelerated its growth from 22% last year to 28% this year.
I want to thank our team for a truly exceptional year. On these great results, I want to highlight a few things that demonstrate the success of our strategy and execution.
There are three things worth noting.
First, we gained incremental market share and a larger share of the consumer e-commerce wallet despite the law of large numbers.
How is that possible? Because through technology and consumer insights, we put the right products in front of the right customers at the right time.
We also executed tailored strategies in supply chain, product and merchant curation and logistics for key categories including apparel, FMCG, home appliances and consumer electronics.
The combination of our superior technology and operating excellence means we can continue to achieve substantial growth at scale, conquering the law of large numbers.
The second thing worth noting is that our New Retail initiatives are substantially growing Alibaba’s total addressable market in commerce.
In New Retail, we are anticipating changing consumer behavior and increasing expectations of quality and convenience whether they shop online or in offline stores.
Through our proprietary technology and operational implementation, we are enabling our retail partners to meet – and even exceed – these consumer expectations and capture incremental sales and operating efficiency. In this process of digitizing the entire retail operation, we are driving a massive transformation of the traditional retail industry. It is fair to say that our e-commerce platform is fast becoming the leading retail infrastructure of China
With this transformation, China’s five trillion US Dollars in retail sales will be available to Alibaba as our total addressable market.
The third thing worth noting is that Alibaba is well-positioned to capture more discretionary spend of Chinese consumers through entertainment and local service offerings beyond e-commerce.
Over the past year, we made substantial investments in our digital media and entertainment business. We strengthened our offerings in streaming content and subscription video services for an expanding viewership.
We also made a key strategic acquisition to take full control of ele.me, an online food ordering and delivery business that comes with a comprehensive local fulfillment and delivery network, which will help to power our New Retail strategy.
The substantial assets in entertainment and local services can leverage our user base of over 550 million annual active consumers in e-commerce.
We are extremely excited by the potential flywheel effects of expanding the wallet share of these 550 million users across our ecosystem, as well as the synergies and consumer insights that can be achieved through a technology platform built on the Alibaba technology infrastructure.


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SimCity SimCity’s always-online requirement was necessary because Maxis dreamed up the game as an MMO, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau has said. It certainly wasn’t conceived as an ill-advised form of DRM – which he deems a “failed dead-end strategy”.
DRM wasn’t ever a consideration for SimCity’s required connection, Gibeau told GamesIndustry. Moreover, it’s simply “not a viable strategy for the gaming business”.
“DRM was never even brought up once,” he said. “You don’t build an MMO because you’re thinking of DRM – you’re building a massively multiplayer experience, that’s what you’re building.
“For the folks who have conspiracy theories about evil suits at EA forcing DRM down the throats of Maxis, that’s not the case at all.”
Like all bosses, however, Gibeau has a weak spot, and GamesIndustry eventually managed to poke through his carapace and elicit an acknowledgement of failure on EA’s part. Gibeau admitted that the publisher wasn’t able to effectively communicate what the game was before launch, and that the implosion of Origin servers in the event of SimCity’s release was “unacceptable”.
He did highlight the efforts the company was making to fix things, however – that free game, for instance, and Maxis’ ongoing support of SimCity.
Whether you’re into region play or not, it’s highly questionable whether its features constitute the interconnected internetiness one might be forgiven for expecting from an ‘MMO’. What do you think of that word’s use alongside SimCity?
Thanks, PC Gamer.


text: Private equity fund Green Harbor has bought a majority stake in JWU, the parent company of New York-based designer brand Jason Wu.Green Harbor announced the news on its WeChat account, but the sum paid by the firm and other details of the acquisition were not disclosed."We are very pleased to announce our new partnership with Green Harbor," Eddie Volchko, chief executive of Jason Wu, tells BoF. "China is a critically important market for luxury brands and is an integral part of our growth plans. Green Harbor’s knowledge and expertise in the Chinese market will be a significant resource to us as we continue to build Jason Wu’s presence in China."Jason Wu launched his ready-to-wear collection in 2007, and joined Hugo Boss as its artistic director for women's in 2013. (That partnership ended in 2018.) Green Harbor, which has offices in Hong Kong and Beijing, invests across the retail, healthcare, education and financial services sectors. The acquisition marks the first time the firm has invested in an American brand, and the first time it has invested in an apparel brand.Green Harbor is buying its stake from American investment firm InterLuxe, which has owned the label since 2014 and is exiting the company. Unlike traditional private equity firms, Interluxe, which also own stakes in Mackage and ALC, offers operational support to its brands.Last year, the Jason Wu inked a deal with Chinese firm Zhejiang Semir Garment Co., which bought an 11 percent stake in the brand for $5 million according to S&P Capital IQ. More recently, Interluxe president Cliff Moskowitz stated that the company was speaking to Asian partners regarding potential partnerships.In recent years, small-to-mid-sized American fashion brands like Jason Wu have struggled to compete commercially against labels owned by the big European groups, which benefit from shared resources and knowhow. While WWD has reported that Derek Lam, currently backed by private equity firm Sandbridge Capital, is also looking for a buyer, Proenza Schouler founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez bought out private equity firm Castanea Partners in November 2018 with the support of private investors.With the Jason Wu acquisition, Green Harbor is joining the crowded ranks of Chinese investors backing global fashion businesses. Looking to tap into China’s appetite for luxury, the likes of Icicle Fashion Group, Fosun, First Heritage Brands, Gansu Gangtai Holding and Shandong Ruyi have backed businesses including Carven, Lanvin, Sonia Rykiel, Buccellati and SMCP respectively in recent years with varied results. On Tuesday, First Heritage brands-backed Sonia Rykiel filed for receivership, the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in France as it searches for a new investor.In particular, conglomerates Fosun and Shandong Ruyi have expanded their portfolios rapidly, looking to challenge Western behemoths such as LVMH and Kering. However, expanding a foreign brands' presence in the world's largest luxury market can also lead to disappointing results, as First Heritage Brands and Gansu's investments have demonstrated.In this case, the deal could boost Jason Wu's presence in China, which is on track to surpass the US as the largest fashion market in 2019, according to BoF and McKinsey & Company's The State of Fashion report. "It must be said that this cross-border acquisition is fully in line with Green Harbor's investment ecosystem," the firm said in its WeChat post."As Jason Wu further expands its business in the Chinese market, our firm's experience will help the brand reshape its management team, strengthen marketing and sales, and provide resources across media, real estate and finance to help the label develop in China and obtain commercial success."Additional reporting by Lauren Sherman, Aijing Wang and Nino Tang.


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The massive opportunity found in traditional media’s continual dominance of local marketing
Schedule a 30-min marketing strategy call with our team
It’s no big secret that digital media is dominating traditional media channels such as Radio, TV, and Print. In fact, by 2023 eMarketer predicts that digital media will account for two thirds of all media spending. This is a significant shift!
But with this rise in digital’s dominance, why is traditional media still overtaking digital when it comes to local marketing? A study published by BIA Advisory Services shows that out of the $151.2 billion spent on local marketing in the USA, 64.7% of it is spent on traditional media.
This begs the question: why are local businesses so keen on sticking to traditional marketing tactics, when large national advertisers are dramatically shifting spend to online channels?
The short answer is, digital is complex. Local businesses lack the time, expertise, data, and technology needed to run the same type of sophisticated, data-driven online marketing programs that dominate the national markets.
However, this presents an extraordinary opportunity for their parent brands and non-competitive partners, such as CRMs, portals, and marketplaces, for they possess the two critical components needed to help local businesses succeed, tech savviness and data! And, if done right, everyone wins while non-competitive partners build a new multi-million dollar revenue opportunity.
In the next section of this post, let’s drill into 4 reasons why local businesses struggle with local marketing.
4 reasons why local businesses are falling behind with online marketing
1. Local Businesses Lack Online Marketing Expertise
Large corporations have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into figuring out how to become successful at modern, data-driven online marketing. They spend money, gather and transform their data, analyze results, and repeat the cycle all over again. Local businesses simply don’t have the expertise, knowledge of current best practices, testing budget, or time to compete on this level.
It is safer and simpler for local businesses to continue to market using the practices that they have always used, mainly direct mail. In fact, during a keynote address at the National Association of Realtors Annual conference in San Francisco last November, Facebook reported that only about 3.5% of local businesses use Facebooks Ads to target their customer lists. This means that 96.5% of local businesses are not taking advantage of Facebook to connect with their customer base, ceding that critical advantage to their large competitors.
2. Lack of Data
Local businesses struggle when it comes to data. Data can be intimidating, and many don’t even know where to start. As a result, Facebook also reports only about 7.5% of local businesses use the ultra-valuable custom audience option of look-a-like targeting. This type of custom audience is a powerful targeting option that can unlock access to a pool of potential customers who share commonalities with existing customers. It’s extremely valuable, but it requires the use of data.
Businesses that do not use look-a-like targeting, leveraging CRM data customer data and website pixel data, are at a major disadvantage versus their larger competitors, who have tech teams to automate the collection and organization of their data. Larger competitors build and test custom look-alike audiences, and ultimately use them to find and reach new customer segments. Most small businesses lack the time and experience needed to execute audience testing with this level of sophistication.
3. Compliance and Changing Policy
The use of data in advertising has been a hot topic in public policy. From GDRP to CCPA and various state regulations, the legalities that govern real estate marketing, data use, and disclosure will continue to be in flux. With every change, the strategies that online marketers use must adapt.
For example, Facebook’s recent change to their HEC (Housing, Employment, Credit) policy removed the use of demographic and zip code in targeting for these regulated industries. Larger companies, who have deep data and best practice expertise, were able to quickly adjust. But for the local business owner, the ability to adapt audience targeting in this ever-changing environment was yet another challenge.
4. Priced Out of the Market
Using pay per click advertising on Google, as an example, large companies pour big bucks into campaigns. This drives up the cost for local keywords too. Take the keywords “mortgage” and “mortgage broker in Seattle”, the average cost per click is around $47. If a local broker wanted to receive 100 clicks, and their web page could convert leads at 3%, they would pay $1,566 per lead. These numbers may be sustainable for Bank of America, but not for your local independent mortgage broker.
What’s needed for local businesses to win in digital
For local businesses, non-competitive partners can come in and save the day. An example of this is BankRate.com (a portal) who spends big bucks in data driven marketing. Their investments bring large high-intent audiences to their website who are in-market to purchase financial services, like mortgages.
BankRate’s primary revenue stream is generated through a lead generation offering. But, imagine if they found a way to pipe localized high-intent audience data directly to Facebook, a less expensive channel then Google Search, which mortgage brokers could then leverage to activate their own ads targeted to their local slice of BankRate’s high-intent audience. Additionally, Look-a-like audiences could be created to expand the high-intent audience to find more local financial services buyers who share similarities with those actively shopping.
This new product offering would open an entire new revenue opportunity for BankRate.com without cannibalizing their onsite lead generation offering. With this new product, mortgage brokers could run affordable digital programs that can compete with, or replace, traditional direct mail marketing.
As you can see in this example, localized audience data that shows high purchase intent is the key asset digital needs to triumph over traditional in local marketing. This valuable data can come in the form of customer and prospect data that local businesses store in CRMs, or in real-time high-intent website search data created by buyers and sellers coming together in Portals and Marketplaces.
At Evocalize, we specialize in unlocking this exact opportunity for the non-competitive partners of local businesses. In fact, since the creation of our embedded online marketing technology, we have helped local businesses compete by running digital programs that have generated more than 8.5 million local leads using data from a non-competitive partner.
Based on our experience we have assembled 3 major hurdles that non-competitive partners need to overcome for their localized new ad products to be successful.
3 Hurdles that non-competitive partners need to overcome to capitalize on this local marketing opportunity
1. Unlocking and transforming data
Audience data needs to flow from the source (non-competitive partner) to the advertising partner (Google/Facebook) in the format that each partner needs for ingestion. After unlocking data, transformation will be needed. Additionally, the API requirements for channel partners, such as Facebook and Google, continually change. This creates a need for ongoing data hygiene and maintenance.
2. Monitoring local online marketing at scale
Running hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands, of congruently running campaigns has a unique set of challenges. A few examples are ad approvals, troubleshooting ad rejections, spending pacing, rate limits, handling erroneous API errors, and communicating program results.
To offer advertisers a high-quality program, a non-competitive partner may need to hire additional in-house talent. From an operations perspective, technologies and processes will need to be expanded to support this new offering
3, Self Service UI
We have found that a key driver of program adoption is the ability to simplify the process involved in launching an advertising program. We know that most local businesses don’t have the expertise to launch online advertising programs based on best practices.
This means an intuitive UI that simplifies the process program creation process is needed. Automation can be used to streamline the creation of ad creative, audiences, and configuration of best practices.
Local marketing is a massive revenue opportunity. Large, sophisticated marketing groups have already shifted their spend to where people are spending the most time today, online channels. Local marketers haven’t been able to follow suit because they lack the time, experience, data, and technology needed to launch sophisticated, data-driven online marketing programs.
This presents an opportunity for local business’ non-competitive partners, such as parent / sponsoring brands, CRMs, portals, and marketplaces to help their local partners by applying their tech savviness, sharing their data, and embedding a simple to use self-service advertising experience into their applications, while unlocking a net new revenue stream in the process. Now that’s a win/win.
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Everything You Need To Know in Less Than 50 Words
A recent study from The Music, Mind, and Brain Research Group at the University of London found that music can increase positive emotions towards advertisement by 16.4% – a breakthrough for marketing agencies worldwide.
Tell Me More
The research in question comes from a study titled A Large Scale Investigation Into the Effects of Music in Advertising. The research group partnered with SoundOut, a pioneer sonic testing, and sound-branding company.
Over 600,000 consumers worldwide participated in the study, making it one of the most thorough (and successful) marketing studies.
The UK government financed the study through a program called the Innovate Fund. Beyond the fascinating results, the groundbreaking methods used in the research help advertisers, influencers, and marketing firms use music effectively in their ads.
Music can increase positive emotions towards advertisement by 16.4% - a breakthrough for marketing agencies worldwide.
The study provided insight into how music impacts the conscious and subconscious mind. Although researchers have already mapped the general conscious response to music, this research is the first significant study concentrated solely on the subconscious.
The results revealed that music increases emotional responses to a video by about 16.4%. The amount that the visceral response increases directly correlates with the type of video. For example, peaceful, intense, or defiant videos deliver a higher sentimental impact, while music in technical or simple videos establishes a lesser emotional response.
SoundOut plans to conduct further rigorous music-based subconscious tests reliant on the findings of this study. Ultimately, SoundOut hopes to help brands ensure that their marketing music choices are not just on brand but also reinforce essential attributes that brands aspire to communicate to customers.
Methodologies and Further Points of Interest
This study was remarkable not only for its results but for the sheer scale and ambition of the project and the technology utilized to run the experiments. David Courtier-Dutton, the CEO of SoundOut, said that this study was unprecedented in its range of diverse participants, and it delivered significant evidence for the emotional influence of music.
The study leveraged the expertise of leading music psychologists and data points from over 600,000 individuals. The ability to run an investigation of this size represents a leap forward for music psychology and businesses. It proves that substantial studies significantly impact our understanding of the subconscious – especially when products or investments become involved.
You likely know that music affects your emotions. Whether you hear your favorite song and have an instantly-improved day or relate a specific tune to someone in your life, music is a deeply personal experience. However, until now, no viable research studies existed to prove the emotional effect of music in the advertising realm.
The impact this report will have on the future study of music psychology—particularly the study of the use of music in the commercial world—is immense. It will provide data for scientists and psychologists to research further and give companies a new way to reach their clients.
Source: Advanced Television


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Brewery Bill Moves
Small Mississippi breweries could sell beer to customers on site under a measure moving forward in the legislature.
House members voted 93-23 Wednesday to pass House Bill 13-22 , sending it to the senate for more debate.
The measure would let a brewery sell the equivalent of two cases of 12 ounce bottles to a customer in a 24-hour period.
Breweries can now give away up to 36 ounces in samples to a customer.
Supporters of the bill say it will help breweries expand their business.
Beer wholesalers, who by law control distribution to stores, had opposed a similar measure last year.
Representative Hank Zuber of Ocean Springs says wholesalers and breweries worked out an agreement last year.


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Disney has long been the industry leader when it comes to theme park entertainment, ride technology, and entertainment on the small and silver screens alike. But the company’s newest trend is taking hold in companies across multiple industries, angering employees and customers along the way.
Guests of the Walt Disney World Resort may use Microsoft Edge to plan their trips, drive in a Ford or General Motors vehicle to the parks (or board a Boeing 747 to fly to Orlando), and post vacation photos to Facebook. Aside from this, The Walt Disney Company has no real affiliation with companies like Microsoft, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Boeing, Amazon, LinkedIn, and Facebook. But in 2023, there is an undeniable tie that binds them, and it’s an unfortunate one.
Job cuts at the beginning of the year were largely taking place within the tech industry. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, as well as Microsoft Corporation, began trimming their expenses by laying off employees. Facebook’s parent Meta said roughly 10,000 jobs would be cut soon, comprising the second mass layoff for the company. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently announced more layoffs within the company–9,000 to be exact.
“Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” Jassy said, saying that the decision came after Amazon finished its annual planning process.
But more recently, the practice of downsizing has spilled out from the tech sector into other industries. In fact, for many companies, downsizing has become the standard procedure used as a means of balancing the books. Though it’s not illegal, such a procedure leaves unemployment in its wake for many, and the ripple effects from that alone can present very difficult challenges for those who are awarded pink slips as part of the fallout.
Disney announced in early February that more than 7,000 jobs would be cut at the House of Mouse. Disney CEO Bob Iger said that major changes were being put into place immediately in an effort to cut costs of more than $5.5 billion. This includes workforce reductions, as well as a restructuring of the company. Shortly before the first layoffs, Disney asked upper management to create lists of their most “redundant, disposable” employees so that those “useless” Cast Members could be among the first to go.
The first waves of layoffs hit hard as the chairman of Marvel Entertainment was relieved of his post, and high-level execs at ABC News were also let go, setting into motion a major restructuring within the entity as well. But as difficult as the first wave of cuts was, the second wave is being described as “a bloodbath.”
As of the time of this publication, Disney’s EMEA (England, Middle East, Africa) sector is preparing for cuts, though the company has not disclosed who will be laid off next.


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The stock purchase took place as the company lowered its revenue growth guidance to 15-20 per cent for the next few quarters.
While most brokerages have cut their price targets on the stock, a few still see it in the north of Rs 700 apiece, given benign raw material prices and the company’s strong position in mass luggage making.
Safari Industries reported 31 per cent sales growth for September quarter against VIP Industries’ flat topline growth. But its margin expansion was lower than VIP’s due to the latter’s superior product mix and better negotiations with Chinese vendors. Big Bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwala owns stake in VIP Industries.
On Monday, Safari traded 3.4 per cent higher at Rs 563 on BSE. The stock is down 29 per cent year to date, but up 200 per cent in last two years and 8,200 per cent in last 10.
Brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher said the luggage maker’s DNA underwent a paradigm shift after Sudhir Jatia, who served VIP Industries as MD from February 2007 to April 2010, bought a majority 77 per cent stake in the company in May 2012.
Jatia instituted various strategies, including rationalisation of product portfolios, foray into polycarbonate luggage manufacturing, setting up of offices in China for soft luggage imports, acquiring brands like Genius, Magnum and Egonauts and increasing ad spends, the brokerage said.
Notwithstanding the near-term growth concerns, Angel Broking expects the company to report a topline growth of nearly 26 per cent over FY19-21 at Rs 910 crore on the back of diversified product portfolio and strong distribution network with high brand recall.
“Safari's bottom-line is set to grow at a CAGR of 36 per cent over FY11-21E due to gradual improvement in operating margin. We maintain a ‘Buy’ recommendation on the stock with a price target Rs 717,” the brokerage said.
Safari’s gross margins for the quarter improved 145 basis points to 43.9 per cent. Analysts largely attributed this to a fall in raw material cost in the hard luggage segment. A fall in effective tax rate to 9.8 per cent also boosted profit.
Inventories for the first half of FY20 came down by Rs 50 crore in H1FY20, indicating liquidation in channel inventory.
“Overall, we are cutting our earnings estimates by 2 per cent and 5.5 per cent for FY20 and FY21, respectively. At CMP, the stock trades at 29 times FY21 EPS. We continue to maintain a ‘buy’ rating with a revised target price of Rs 700 against our earlier target price of Rs 740,” said Sunidhi Securities.
Even though growth concerns have aggravated due to a slowdown in discretionary spends, a 30-40 per cent drop in polycarbonate prices and stable rupee and crude oil prices have led to an expansion in gross margins for the luggage maker, said Prabhudas Lilladher, which expects margins on luggage makers to remain healthy in the second half of FY20.
Among key risks, a closure of many luggage units in China has made the surviving suppliers to take price hikes, which could put pressure on the company’s margins, unless the price hike is absorbed, Angel Broking said. “Safari’s 23 per cent sales comes from the hard luggage segment and any increase in input costs could negatively impact profitability,” it said.
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- DoT Asks Spectrum Bidders to Make Payments by Aug 16
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued demand notices to all the four companies that bought spectrum in the recently concluded auction, asking them to make payments by August 16.NDA Candidate Dhankar Elected New Vice Prez
Former West Bengal Governor and NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankar was elected as the 14th Vice President of India on Saturday, defeating joint opposition nominee Margaret Alva by a huge margin of 346 votes.SBI Profit Falls 7% on 6.5kcr MTM Losses
State Bank of India (SBI) reported a surprise 7% fall in June quarter net profit from the year earlier due to a hit on the market value of government bond investments as yields rose during the quarter.
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Disgraced former HBOS boss Andy Hornby has had his start date as Wagamama restaurant group chief executive confirmed as 1 August 2019.
Andy McCue will step down as current CEO of the Restaurant Group from 30 June 2019 and will remain on hand for Hornby and the broader executive team for a short period of handover.
Lloyds Banking Group has recently been forced to launch a review of a scheme set up to compensate victims of fraud at the Reading branch of HBOS during Hornby's tenure. The lender has appointed Sir Ross Cranston to carry out an 'independent assurance review' following intervention from the Financial Conduct Authority and the City minister John Glen.
Lloyds has set aside £100 million for victims of the fraud at the hands of HBOS Reading staff between 2003 and 2007.
Corrupt bankers from the HBOS' Reading branch have been jailed for the £245 million loans scam, which destroyed several businesses and saw the criminals squander the profits on high-end prostitutes and luxury holidays.
Hornby was in charge of the bank when the crimes were going on but he and his Bank of Scotland board were unaware of the criminal activity inside the bank.
In the period following McCue's departure at the end of June and prior to Hornby joining as CEO at the beginning of August, the business will be led by Debbie Hewitt, chairman supported by Kirk Davis, CFO and the broader executive team.
The Restaurant Group operates over 650 restaurants and pub restaurants throughout the UK. Its principal trading brands are Wagamama, Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito and Brunning & Price. It also operates a multi-brand Concessions business which trades principally in UK airports. In addition, the Wagamama business has five restaurants in the US and over 50 franchise restaurants operating across a number of territories.


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"U.S. food and agricultural imports have increased significantly in recent years, causing some in Congress to question whether the U.S. food safety system can keep pace. A series of recent incidents have raised safety concerns about the many foods, medicines, and other products from China in particular. For example, in early 2007, evidence began to emerge that adulterated pet food ingredients from China had caused the deaths of an unknown number of dogs and cats. In late June 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it was detaining all imports of farm-raised seafood from China (specifically, shrimp, catfish, basa, dace, and eel) until the shippers of these products could confirm they are free of unapproved drug residues. U.S. imports of all Chinese food, agricultural, and seafood products have increased from nearly 0.411 million metric tons (MMT) in 1996 to 1.833 MMT in 2006, a 346% rise. The increase by value was 375%, from $880 million in 1996 to $4.2 billion in 2006. China was the sixth leading foreign supplier of agricultural products to the United States and the second leading seafood supplier in 2006. When seafood values are combined with food and agricultural products, China was the third leading foreign supplier, after Canada and Mexico. Two federal agencies-FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)-are primarily responsible for the government's food regulatory system, although a number of other federal, state, and local agencies also have important roles."
CRS Report for Congress, RL34080


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Choice Hotels adds 560 rooms to its pipeline in Q1
Choice Hotels has recorded the strongest pipeline of new property growth in the past decade.
Wyndham Garden Queenstown welcomes first guests
Wyndham Garden Queenstown has officially opened its doors to guests (19 April, 2018).
Major Sunshine Coast luxury resort gets green light
The Sunshine Coast Council has given approval for the development of the Badderam Eco Luxe Resort & Spa in the hear
MGallery by Sofitel sets sights on female business travellers with new iniative
73% of women travelling for business often forget to pack an essential item and don’t realise they’ve left it behin
Exclusive Video: Virgin Australia reveals new trans-Tasman strategy
Virgin Australia is set to up the ante on trans-Tasman flights following the upcoming cessation on October 28 of th
Exclusive Video: Massive impact of Australian Tourism Exchange
The impact of Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE), currently being held in Adelaide this week, has reached $9 billion
Tryp Fortitude Valley welcomes two new murals
Brisbane’s only street art hotel has added two new murals by international artists this week.
Marriott unites its loyalty programs
Marriott International has announced that it will introduce one unified loyalty program in August this year and HM
Travelodge partners with Sydney Comedy Festival to create Ubed
Travelodge is offering Sydney Comedy Festival-goers offered a new way of getting to and from shows and HM has the d
Wyndham to brand another Ramada hotel in Auckland
HM can reveal Ramada Hotel and Suites Newmarket is slated to open in Auckland in 2020.
Darwin Central Hotel to become a Rydges
Event Hospitality and Entertainment has announced that it will manage the Darwin Central Hotel under its Rydges Hot
Shanghai Greenland Shenhua Football Club hang their boots at Primus Hotel Sydney
The Shanghai Greenland Shenhua Football Club will call Primus Hotel Sydney home tonight ahead of their game against
First Look: Marriott Docklands, Melbourne
Capital Alliance has unveiled the first images of the first Marriott to be built in Australia in 20 years, and HM h
AccorHotels sucessfully acquires ResDiary
AccorHotels today announces that it has completed the acquisition of table reservation system, ResDiary.


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Residents of Rivers and its neighbouring states are currently experiencing the scarcity of bread, a staple food in country.
This is as the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, Rivers State chapter, urged the Federal Government to intervene in the high cost of baking materials.
The scarcity of bread in the state, according to the association, is as a result of the one-week warning strike embarked upon by its members on Saturday as a result of the high cost of baking materials, including flour.
The state Chairman of the association, Mr. Kolawole Adelegan, said in Port Harcourt that that the warning strike was to press home its demands for a reduction in the prices of baking condiments.
Explaining that the business was being threatened by the rising costs of baking materials, Adelegan added that the continued rise of the dollar against the naira was affecting the prices of the materials.
A big loaf of sliced bread, which was selling for N350, now goes for N400 in Port Harcourt as a result of the strike.
Adelegan had shortly after a meeting with members of the association, read out a resolution that was jointly signed by him and the secretary, Mr. Bartholomew Nkachi.
He added that the meeting was a follow up to the congress held on March 1, 2016 where the body considered withdrawing its services.
The resolution stated, “A bag of flour that costs N6,800 before now sells for N10,000, while butter that used to sell for N3,800 now costs N5,700.
“Also, yeast that previously sold for N6,500 now sells for N10,000. Sugar that sold for N7,500 is now purchased for N11,000, while 20 litres of groundnut oil that sold for between N4,500 and N5,000 is now N10,000. All of these, in addition to the high cost of fuel, makes it difficult for us to continue in business.
“We, therefore, called for the intervention of the Federal Government to look into the increasing prices of these baking materials, which are mainly imported, to enable us to remain in business, or else, many bakeries will be closed.”
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Contact: [email protected]


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Pioneering for eco-friendly fountain solutions
While the sustainability of printing inks has gained importance among printers and brand owners in recent years, the environmental performance of fountain solution concentrates has received less attention in the market so far. At hubergroup, however, we pursue a holistic approach to sustainability. So, when we reformulated our SUBSTIFIX-AF in 2018, we were one of the first companies offering eco-friendly fountain solutions to our customers, which went beyond legal regulations.
Our SUBSTIFIX-AF was formulated for alcohol-free printing and is designed for sheetfed printing on presses with alcohol dampening units. But despite the lack of IPA, it has a large working window and is therefore ideal for printers, who want to banish volatile organic compounds (VOC) from their pressroom. In addition, our SUBSTIFIX-AF doesn’t contain butyl glycol, a raw material currently under review for reclassification by the Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC).
Frédéric Kocher, Head of Product Development Fount at hubergroup Germany, explains, “As soon as the RAC expressed its concerns about the use of butyl glycol last year, we started reformulating our fountain solution. It is important for us to guarantee our customers the highest level of safety and environmental compatibility, so we pay great attention to using harmless raw materials.” Thanks to this careful selection of raw materials, which also takes into account the exclusion policy of the European Printing Ink Association EuPIA, our SUBSTIFIX-AF meets the requirements of various eco-labels such as the Blue Angel, the Nordic Ecolabel or the Austrian Ecolabel.
Frédéric Kocher adds, “hubergroup has been a pioneer for fountain solutions since offset printing has established itself as a printing process. Today, we use this pioneering spirit to adapt our products to future regulatory requirements – such as the reclassification of methylisothiazolinone which will come into effect on May 1, 2020 – and to further reduce the environmental impact of our fountain solutions.”


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BARBERTON, Ohio JohnDow Industries (JDI), through its Fuel Chief brand, recently announced an aggressive fundraising campaign for breast cancer research, "Caddy for a Cause." From Aug. 1 through the end of 2011, JDI will contribute $10 to this research for every Fuel Chief Pro 25 25 Gallon Steel Gas Caddy (FC-25GC) sold during that period.
Joe Dease, president of JDI stated, “We are excited and passionate about this campaign. We want to give back to this very worthy cause … The Fuel Chief products (portable fuel storage and handling) are all about safety and saving lives, so we felt it was a natural partnership. According to the American Cancer Society, every 23 seconds someone in the world is diagnosed with breast cancer and every 69 seconds, someone dies from this horrific disease.”
JDI will communicate the campaign through product packaging, JDI shirts, trade shows, flyers, a special micro site, customer email blasts, press releases and distributor and rep communications.
JDI’s recently introduced FC-25GC Gas Caddy has achieved UL Listing status while also complying with OSHA guidelines. JDI becomes the only manufacturer in the U.S. with these safety credentials. The FC-25GC is also equipped with a heavy-duty, UL Listed two way cast iron pump.
For more information on JDI and its "Caddy For A Cause" campaign, visit www.johndow.com.


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Virgin Media has announced the launch of its new WiFi router.
The new Hub 5 is powered by WiFi 6 technology and promises to deliver ‘peak WiFi performance.” The router will work with Virgin Media’s existing DOCSIS 3.1 technology and comes with a 2.5Gbps ethernet port alongside three additional 1Gbps ports.
Virgin Media O2 is currently the largest gigabit provider in the UK, and has plans to deliver gigabit speeds across its entire 15.5 million home-strong network by the end of the year.
The operator also said that the product is designed with the environment in mind. It is made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, while it said that WiFi 6 technology helps boost network efficiency and connected devices’ battery life.
Virgin Media will offer the Hub 5 to existing customers first at no extra cost. Eligible customers will be contacted and given the option of upgrading ahead of a wider launch in 2022.
Jeff Dodds, Chief Operating Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “At Virgin Media O2 we don’t stand still and are constantly working to give our customers the latest and most innovative technology to suit their digital needs now and in the future. We are excited to give our existing customers first access to the Hub 5, powered by WiFi 6 technology, which will provide even faster WiFi speeds and help unleash the full potential of new devices from next-gen games consoles to the newest smartphones in their homes.”


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Honor 9A with 13MP triple camera to launch in India on July 31
Phone company Honor has announced the launch of its most exclusive smartphone Honor 9a in India.
New Delhi: Phone company Honor has announced the launch of its most exclusive smartphone Honor 9a in India. A perfect phone for youngsters and students is now available in India. The Honor 9A smartphone will be introduced in India on 31 July. The teaser of this smartphone has also been made live on e-commerce site Amazon India.
Let us tell you that the company first launched the Honor 9A smartphone in Russia.
Price of Honor 9A in India:
The price of Honor 9A smartphone is not yet revealed. It is expected that the price of this smartphone will be between 10,000 and 15,000 rupees. Apart from this, this smartphone can be made available for sale in Amazon's Prime Day Sale.
The Honor 9A smartphone has a 6.3-inch HD display.
This smartphone has the support of 3 GB RAM with MediaTek MT 6765 chipset.
Honor has provided features like dual SIM, Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth, GPS and USB port in terms of connectivity in this smartphone.
Along with this, users have got a 5,000 mAh battery in this device, which provides 37 hours of battery backup.
At the same time, this smartphone works on the Magic UI 3.1 operating system based on Android 10.
Users have received a triple rear camera setup in the Honor 9A smartphone, which has a 13-megapixel sensor.
It has a 5-megapixel wide-angle lens, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. Apart from this, an 8-megapixel selfie camera has been given in the front of this smartphone.


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Footwear designer Steve Madden is putting his time and money behind a new independent label, 5Towns Records. The founder and former CEO of Steven Madden, Ltd. has partnered with Steve Feinberg of brand marketing firm 8spoke to launch the imprint, following a successful run of the Steve Madden Music initiative.
A label representative tells Billboard that 5Towns is Madden’s way of getting closer to the creative process in a dedicated way, and that it’s “not a brand marketing effort like some of the other labels coming today. This is Steve and Steve putting in the work themselves.”
Madden and Feinberg formed 5Towns in May and plan a move from Midtown Manhattan to the slightly more fashionable SoHo neighborhood in early 2017. As Page Six noted, the label’s name is a nod to the area of Long Island where Madden grew up.
An announcement of the imprint’s first two artist signings will be coming in the very near future, with several more in the works. The duo also plans on tailoring distribution arrangements as each project forms.
“They started the label together, and it’s all hands on deck,” the label said of the Steves. “They are listening to new music, meeting artists and plotting their approach every day.”
Since launching, the Steve Madden Music concert series has featured artists including Cults, Santigold, XYLØ and Grimes. In 2014, the initiative staged an Iggy Azalea show at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg.


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A well-known charity shop in Nuneaton has been forced to close its doors.
Bosses at the PDSA have said that after 'exploring every avenue' they have taken the decision close the store in Stratford Street.
It has been stressed that, despite the closure of the town centre store, the PDSA vets in the area remain open.
The store is the latest charity shop forced to close, after the Cancer Research store, formerly based next door, also shut its doors.
Lloyd Hughes, PDSA’s Head of Retail, said: “After exploring every avenue and careful consideration, sadly our Nuneaton shop has closed its doors for the final time.
“Like many retailers, we have been facing extremely tough trading conditions on high streets up and down the country, and we took the difficult decision not to renew our lease.
“On behalf of PDSA I would like to thank the staff, volunteers and customers for their support and hope they will continue to assist our work of treating sick and injured pets in the future. Our shops in Cheylesmore and Radford remain open.
“Although our shop in Nuneaton has now closed, this does not affect our veterinary clients in the area, who can still access PDSA’s charitable treatment for their pets as usual.”
PDSA provides free and low cost veterinary treatment to sick and injured pets belonging to people in need.
The charity has seen its income fall by around £3 million per month since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Keep up with all of the latest local news with our daily newsletter.


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It's an auspicious day for Monolith Soft and JRPGs. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has sold more than 1.7 million copies worldwide. This figure makes it the best-selling game in the Xenoblade series as well as Monolith Soft's best-selling game in the West overall.
Monolith Soft's executive director Tetsuya Takahashi revealed the sales figures in an interview with Japanese gaming website 4gamer. Takahashi says this is encouraging and that the environment is getting better for JRPGs in the West. Back in September last year, Takahashi told US Gamer that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had exceeded his sales expectations and that he hadn't expected so many people to buy it in North America and Europe.
We don't yet know what this might mean for the future of Xenoblade. In May 2018, Monolith Soft opened a new studio in Iidabashi in Tokyo. Also, in October, Monolith sent out notices for staff to work on two new unannounced projects. Global market researcher Stealth believes that the two games are likely to be a new IP and the next Xeno game respectively. The strong performance of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will no doubt be encouraging to the studio as they work on these projects. We're also holding out hope for a port of the severely underrated Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the third game in the Xenoblade Chronicles series and the seventh in the Xeno meta-series. It follows Rex, a Driver who is searching for the fabled World Tree. Rex gets caught in a faction war and must evade his pursuers while trying to reach the World Tree. Like the previous two Xenoblade Chronicles games, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is an open-world action RPG with an emphasis on exploration, combat, and questing. It's available to buy now on Nintendo Switch along with its standalone expansion, Torna: The Golden Country. You can buy a physical version of Torna: The Golden Country which doesn't require Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to play. We'd still recommend you check out Rex's adventure though.
Did you play Xenoblade Chronicles 2? Will you be checking it out soon? Let us know in the comments below!


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An urban lore of buying Detroit cars is don’t purchase cars made on Monday, Friday, or the first day of Hunting Season.
Hunting is a big sport in America with an estimated 11 million hunters. About 650,000 deer hunters participated in Michigan’s hunting season last year, adding up to a half billion dollar industry.
An estimated 700,000 hunters will take part in Michigan’s hunting season this year.
Much of America celebrates Veterans Day, a federal and state holiday. Banks, the post office and other businesses are closed on Veterans Day.
The Detroit auto manufacturers offered to make Veterans Day a paid holiday for the auto workers.
The UAW, representing its members, said that’s nice, but politely deferred. The union suggested that since Veterans Day will normally be about a week before the first day of deer hunting season, Detroit should make it a flexible holiday, so that a three day weekend could coincide with the start of the hunting season.
Many auto workers, who are highly patriotic, thereby honor our distinguished veterans by shooting a buck.
Saturday is the official start of Michigan’s hunting season for deer. Therefore, tomorrow is a paid holiday for Chrysler, Ford, and GM workers.
Illinois’ begins on Sunday with Indiana and Wisconsin opening their seasons on Monday. Ohio starts later on November 26.
The auto companies did not have a choice in the matter. If Veterans Day remained a paid holiday, the Big Three would be faced with a high "sick" leave rate about a week later on the opening of hunting season. The quality of the cars built on that day would drop, and the “sick” workers would receive a day of sick leave.
Many might grieve for the targets, the White Tail Deer. Never forget that a hunter orphaned Bambi.
The deer population dropped to half a million in the late 1800’s. The deer though are very prolific. With natural enemies, such as pumas and wolves decimated in much of their range, the estimated white tail deer population in the United States is between 20-25 million.
They breed faster than the hunter’s shot or the archer’s arrow.
The problem for America is that this holiday adds to Detroit’s economic disadvantage. The imported car manufacturers don’t take the day off.


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Google will start blocking intrusive advertisements in its Chrome browser starting February 15 as an attempt to curb down annoying ads.
Google will start blocking intrusive advertisements in its Chrome browser starting February 15.
Google will start blocking intrusive advertisements in its Chrome browser starting February 15. Ad blocking will come to both Google’s mobile and desktop browsers. The announcement went public on Google’s developer page. Google did not say what Chrome version of the browser the new ad-blocking mechanism will ship with. But it is likely to come as part of the Chrome 64 release scheduled for late January 2018.
It was in April, that first reports suggested Google’s move to incorporate a native ad-blocker into Chrome. Exact details were limited, but in July it revealed that Google was testing an ad-blocker baked inside Chrome Canary. The experimental version of Chrome browser. However, not all ads will come under block list by Google, only the most annoying ads.
Interestingly, most of the digital ads across the world are pop via Google. The move follows a recent reveal by the Coalition for Better ads experience program, which has released new guidelines for companies like Google and Facebook to improve the online ad experience for both consumers and publishers. Pop-up ads, auto-play video ads with sound, prestitial ads with a countdown, and large sticky ads all have been identified as falling the Better Ads standard on the desktop.
For the mobile environment, the Coalition confirms identification of pop-up ads, prestitial ads, ads with a density greater than 30 percent, flashing animation ads, auto-play video ads with sound, poststitial ads with a countdown, full-screen scroll-over ads, and large sticky ads are under the banner of non-acceptable. Google says it will block all ads on websites that have a “failing” status for more than 30 days.


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Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel has hit 50 million downloads less than a year after launch
Konami has just announced that its super popular card battler Yi-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has successfully raked in over 50 million downloads. And this massive feat has just come in a short time span of nine months. The game is available in over 80 countries on all major gaming platforms for free and clearly, it has been loved by all.
To celebrate this monumental occasion, Konami is giving everyone a bonus of 1,000 Gems as part of their 50 Million Downloads Appreciation Campaign. All Duelists can gain access to this reward by logging into the game. Another celebratory bonus includes a Five-Header Dragon Protector to keep all the Master Duel cards safe.
In addition, a new secret pack will be available on Yi-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, beginning today. Titled Alba Abyss, this set features cards inspired by the Fallen of Albaz and its ability to bring forth powerful dragons through Fusion Summoning. Some of the cards include Alba-Lenatus the Abyss Dragon, Albaz the Ashen, and Branded Banishment.
Alongside this celebration, Konami has also announced a new Challenger Cup, a pan-European competition that goes live next month. It features multiple tournaments that will be hosted by some of the most popular Yi-Gi-Oh! content creators from Europe.
Between December 17th and February 26th, 2023, 85 such contests will be held with over 10,000 players being able to showcase their skills during them. A content creator will host every tournament and some of the confirmed names include Farfa, Schattenspieler, Lithium2300, Renebrain and SuperZouloux.
Players living in Europe can participate in the Challenger Cup if they believe they are up to the task. A tonne of rewards will be up for grabs as well, including Yi-Gi-Oh! Master Duel hoodies, card sleeves, Rescue Rabbit plushies, and even PlayStation5 and Nintendo Switch OLEDs! If you think you can win, be sure to sign-up when more details are revealed.
Add to the list of 50 million downloads by downloading Yi-Gi-Oh! Master Duel now for free.Also, check out this list of the best card battlers to play on mobile!