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Claravine Appears on the Inc. 5000 For Third Consecutive Year, With Revenue Growth of 265 Percent
Inc. recently revealed that Claravine ranked on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The list represents a one-of-a-kind look at the most successful companies within the economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent businesses. Facebook, Chobani, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known global brands gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.
“We’re honored to be recognized on the 2022 Inc. 5000 List for the third consecutive year,” said Verl Allen, CEO of Claravine. “The past three years have been transformative for Claravine and being named to the Inc. 5000 is a testament to the incredible success of our clients and our world-class team. In the year ahead, we plan to focus on substantially expanding our integration library. Our goal is to be compatible with more major platforms powering digital advertising, including measurement solutions, creative optimization and content metadata.”
The companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 have not only been successful, but have also demonstrated resilience amid supply chain woes, labor shortages, and the ongoing impact of Covid-19. Among the top 500, the average median three-year revenue growth rate soared to 2,144 percent. Together, those companies added more than 68,394 jobs over the past three years.
Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine, available starting Aug. 23.
“The accomplishment of building one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., in light of recent economic roadblocks, cannot be overstated,” said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. “Inc. is thrilled to honor the companies that have established themselves through innovation, hard work, and rising to the challenges of today.”
Founded in 2012, Claravine empowers a proactive approach to data by activating standards across people and technology – bridging the silos that limit speed and decisions. The company has forged successful partnerships with well-known Fortune 1000 companies such as Under Armour and Ancestry and is currently working with a quarter of the Fortune 100. With a collaborative user interface and strategic integrations with top customer experience platforms such as Adobe and Google, Claravine’s platform, The Data Standards Cloud®, helps global organizations define, apply and connect standards across their ecosystem for faster decisions, greater agility and increased ROI.
In addition to being named to the Inc. 5000 list, Claravine is having a landmark year with milestones including an additional $16 million in Series B funding, and being named a 2022 AdExchanger Programmatic Power Player as well as a “Momentum Leader” and “High Performer” in the Summer 2022 G2 Rankings.
Claravine is a pioneer in data integrity for the global enterprise. We empower a proactive approach to data by activating standards across people and technology, bridging the silos that limit speed and decisions across digital experiences. That’s why 25% of the Fortune 100 use our platform, The Data Standards Cloud, to define, apply and connect standards across their ecosystem for faster decisions, greater agility, and increased ROI. Claravine investors include Five Elms Capital, Grayhawk Capital, Next Frontier Capital, Peninsula Ventures, Kickstart Fund and Silverton Partners. For more information, visit www.claravine.com.
More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000
Methodology Companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2021. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to four decimal places. The top 500 companies on the Inc. 5000 are featured in Inc. magazine’s September issue. The entire Inc. 5000 can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.
The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. For more information on the Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, visit http://conference.inc.com/.
Kite Hill PR


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Claroty security researchers have disclosed three vulnerabilities in Honeywell's Experion PKS distributed content system which permit an attacker to execute malicious code, disrupt business processes, and perform denial of service attacks. Honeywell has issued patches.
Despite getting its butt seriously kicked by AMD, Apple, TSMC and others, Intel is still the world's biggest maker of CPUs for traditional computers, and it has announced its first new transistor architecture is more than a decade, along with an "industry-first" for backside power delivery and "continued leadership in advanced 3D packaging innovations," along with its first customer announcements for its Intel Foundry Services (IFS).
Chemical distribution company A S Harrison & Co has standardised on Nintex Promapp to improve its business processes.
Big data aggregator and search platform, Splunk, has unveiled a score of new features and products, collectively labelled Splunk>next, representing major technological changes and a raft of innovation and new ways of working.
What does a ‘lean’ company do when it wants to go global? It thoroughly documents its business processes to capture and capitalise on its IP and to deliver a consistent, quality delivery world-wide.
Promapp aims to replace bulky and often unread procedures manuals with a cloud-based system that delivers a more familiar and preferred experience.
Senator Mathias Cormann LP, the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, is speaking at IQPC's Process Automation for Super Funds 2011 to be held in Melbourne on the 27-28th September.
Pune, India - Viklele Associates announced release of Black Diamond SCADA v1.0.Black Diamond SCADA is a state of the art tool designed to simplify building robust industrial process control and monitoring solutions.
Pune, India - Viklele Associates announced release of their Black Diamond SCADA v1.0 for beta trials. Black Diamond is a highly configurable, scaleable and reliable SCADA solution.Black Diamond SCADA is packed with innovative features to simplify building a robust industrial process control and monitoring solution. It offers an integrated reporting, monitoring and control functionality for use across industry verticals.
"The upgrade will also cover four times service capacity while reducing power consumption" is quite intriguing. Perhaps they have some[…]
"Only" 329 million will subscribe to 5G - wow! That number is the entire population of the USA
Do we really want our skies littered with these satellites?You can’t blame people for being attracted to Starlink or one[…]
Gladys - perhaps then a couple of questions you may wish to ask Kelly before the next PR blurb: Kelly[…]
Thank you for taking the trouble to comment.There are many features that have become common on today's smartphones that were[…]

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Morocco, Japan Set To Promote Cooperation In Agriculture, Sea Fisheries
Minister of Agriculture and Sea Fisheries Aziz Akhannouch held talks in Tokyo with Japanese minister of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries Koya Nishikawa on means of promoting cooperation and boosting trade in the fields of agriculture and sea fisheries.
During this meeting, Akhannouch highlighted the Kingdom’s potential in the fields of agriculture and sea fisheries and the momentum which marks these two sectors thanks to Morocco’s national strategies in agriculture (Green Morocco Plan, PMV) and in sea fisheries (Halieutis), said Thursday a statement of the ministry.
Moroccan minister stressed on this occasion the important development, both in terms of quantity and quality, of national agricultural and fishery products, underlining significant improvement of the country’s business climate particularly in these two sectors, the same source added.
The two officials expressed their readiness to endorse all initiatives aimed at promoting Moroccan- Japanese cooperation in these two vital sectors, boosting the volume of trade and facilitating access of Moroccan products to the Japanese market.
Japan is a promising market for several Moroccan products, including citrus fruits, olives, argan oil and seafood, the statement concluded.
MAP 25 September 2014


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America.com goes on the auction block this week, and specialists who monitor the buying and selling of Internet domain names say it could fetch one of the highest prices ever paid for a domain.
The Cambridge auctioneer and a Swiss broker representing the overseas owner of the America.com domain say there has been strong interest among prospective buyers and the sale price could exceed the estimated $12 million paid for Sex.com earlier this decade, thought to be the most ever.
Others think the America.com price will fall short of the record.
“I think it’s a seven-figure name,” said Ron Jackson, editor and publisher of the Domain Name Journal in Tampa, Fla., a magazine and Web site that tracks transactions.
“You could sell anything from there: hotel rooms, flights, ground transportation from airports. For someone with the right vision, there’s a lot you can do with that name. But I don’t think it’s going to be the all-time highest domain sale.”
America.com will be auctioned off between Thursday and May 29 by Sedo, an Internet research and appraisal company that runs online marketplaces for domain names from Cambridge and its home office in Cologne, Germany. Bidders must be certified by the company at either of two Web sites: Sedo.com or GreatDomains.com, a site acquired by Sedo last year to handle auctions of its premium properties.
The site America.com currently contains information about the upcoming auction.
Jeremiah Johnston, the Sedo general counsel and chief operating officer for the Cambridge office, said the auction has already begun generating inquiries from would-be buyers, ranging from yachting companies to clothing retailers. He said Sedo’s largest sale ever was of the Vodka.com domain, purchased for $3 million by a Russian vodka company planning to enter North America.
Buyers have been especially attracted recently to “geo domains” that contain the names of cities, states, or countries, Johnston said. “We brokered Chinese.com for $1.1 million last year,” he said. “So we’re hoping America.com goes for more than that. America has stronger value as a brand. I think it has the potential to be a record.”
The domain name was acquired three years ago by a foreign investor who does not want to be identified. Paolo Belcastro, the owner’s representative outside Geneva, said the ultimate price will depend on the number of serious bidders.
“I really think this name has very, very great potential,” Belcastro said. When your Web site is called America.com, you’re going to multiply the power of your market investment by 10 or 20. When someone sees your advertisement once, they’ll never forget the name.”


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The aim of this initiative will be to introduce new advertising solutions with improved protection of user data privacy. In particular, they will function without identifiers for different applications, including an advertising identifier, and will also allow limiting the amount of user data transmitted to third parties, says SEOnews.
Furthermore, Google is investigating how it can mitigate the risks of stealth collection and is trying to enable more secure methods for integrating apps with ad SDKs.
While Google is developing and testing new solutions, it also plans to continue supporting existing mobile advertising mechanisms for at least two years.
The company will notify users in advance of future changes.
You can read more about the Privacy Sandbox for Android on the Google Global Blog.
The Privacy Sandbox for Android is a logical extension of an existing program in which Google is looking for ways to better protect user privacy without compromising the provision of free content and services.
While Google is developing and testing new solutions, it is planned to continue supporting existing mechanisms for advertising on mobile devices for at least two years.
In January 2021, Google officially unveiled its Privacy Sandbox project. As part of the initiative, Google is working on new targeting and ad performance measurement technologies that can be used in a “cookie-free world.”
One such solution was the new FLoC targeting method. However, the technology has not received support in the industry, notes NIX Solutions. As a result, in January of this year, Google introduced a replacement for FLoC – Topics API.


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The Estée Lauder brand has signed Arizona Muse to its roster of spokesmodels.
Muse, 23, joins Elizabeth Hurley, Carolyn Murphy, Hilary Rhoda, Constance Jablonski, Liu Wen and Joan Smalls in the Lauder lineup.
Muse has been signed for skin care, makeup and fragrance, noted Aerin Lauder, style and image director for the Estée Lauder brand. “Arizona is a true beauty and a great complement to our other spokespeople,” said Lauder. “She is perfect for the brand — she is warm, elegant and personable. She can represent skin care, fragrance and makeup equally well. She is truly a modern Estée Lauder woman.”
While Muse hasn’t yet been shot for any Lauder advertising, “We see her in a very luxury way,” said Richard Ferretti, senior vice president and creative director for Estée Lauder. “She has the ability to go to that place. Also, Arizona is warm, engaging and smart. She has an innate graciousness that we believe will translate to whatever advertising we choose to do with her.”
The first images featuring Muse are expected within the next year.
Muse’s quick rise in fashion has included covers of Italian, Korean, Australian, French, Russian and British Vogue; work with fashion photographers Steven Meisel, Patrick Demarchelier and Paolo Roversi, and runway appearances at 30 recent ready-to-wear shows, including Calvin Klein, Chanel, Burberry, Giorgio Armani, Roberto Cavalli and Dior. She is also appearing in spring ad campaigns for Fendi, Karl by Karl Lagerfeld and Isabel Marant.
For her part, Muse calls the role “a monumental honor,” adding that she got the news during Paris Fashion Week. “I walked into my hotel room and found an enormous bouquet of flowers from Lauder welcoming me to the brand,” she remembered. “It was such a great way to finish fashion week.”
Muse noted that she’s looking forward to working with longtime friend Tom Pecheux, the brand’s creative makeup director, as well as the rest of the team. “I especially love skin care. It is something that is the base of everything,” she said, adding that Lauder’s Re-Nutriv is a new favorite. She also remains refreshingly down-to-earth about her success. “It still kind of blows me away,” Muse said. “I don’t understand why all of this work happened, but I hope it continues!”
From overseeing America’s fastest-growing speciality retailers to codifying cool, WWD talked to the women who are leading the way for the future of beauty. Check out our Instagram Stories to see how these women built today and are creating tomorrow. (📸: @hannah_khymych) #wwdbeauty
For @laperlalingerie's spring 2018 show, the brand chose to host their event at @thevenetianmacao. With Chinese megastars @bingbing_fan and @hubing in attendance, La Perla debuted a rock ‘n’ roll-inspired collection. The show marked the start of Sands Macao Fashion Week, which runs from October 19 to 24 — the city’s first such event. Pictured here are models backstage with glimmering eyes. #wwdfashion (📷: Cheuk-Yin To)
Trending for spring 2018: top stitch design. Gone are the days of stitch just for seams — designers are using the once-minimal detail to create strong decorative elements. (📷: Paola Testa; Styled by @andrew_shang) #wwdfashion
@tradesy is turning the concept of a showroom upside down with its new space in Santa Monica. Here, the company plans to hold events, art exhibits and a showcase rare fashion pieces like this Louis Vuitton boxing set. Get all the details on Tradesy’s first showroom on WWD.com. #wwdnews
Spotted last night at the @erdem x @hm launch event: Kate Bosworth, Rashida Jones, Kirsten Dunst and Selma Blair. The party, which took place in LA, also marked the opening of their pop-up shop. “I was interested in creating a collection that wasn’t in any way disposable. It was about pieces you’d create and keep forever, things that have a permanence to it,” designer Erdem Moralioglu said. #wwdeye (📷: Katie Jones)
Renee Zellweger in yellow in 2001 and again in 2017. Chosen as one of the 12 @pantone Leading Spring Colors (and dubbed “Meadowlark”), it only makes sense that the bright hue stands the test of time and is making a resurgence this season, seen already on stars like @blakelively and @gigihadid. (📷: Donato Sardello & @rexfeatures) #wwdfashion #tbt
Dior’s 70th anniversary celebration continues with a new exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. “Christian Dior,” which is scheduled to run through March 18, takes a look at the founders tenure from 1947 to 1057 and feature 40 designs. Pictured here is an evening gown from the Ailée, fall 1948-49 haute couture collection. #wwdfashion (📷: Brian Boyle)


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"Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream" said it will host a free event, offering "speed-coaching" for startups and owners of food and craft brewing businesses. The event will be held from 6 pm to 8:30 pm on Monday, March 18th, in the La Jolla Ballroom, at 301 Alcazar Ave. Coral Gables.
The "speed-coaching" will be a series of one-on-one, 20-minute sessions with Samuel Adams employees and local business experts on problems and challenges they face in starting or expanding their food or brewing businesses including: marketing, distribution, e-commerce and social media--as well has how to apply for a "Brewing the American Dream" micro-loan of $500-$25,000.
Brewing the American Dream is the brainchild of Jim Koch, founder of The Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams Beer), who started 29 years ago as a craft brewer wannabee--and couldn't get a bank loan or help with distribution, the company said.
Since 2008, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream has provided $1.9 million of micro-financing to more than 220 small food and beverage businesses nationwide, created or saved over 1,400 jobs, and coached or mentored nearly 3,000 small business owners, the company said.
To sign up for the event, visit http://samadamsbtadmiami.eventbrite.com/#.
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The release of the ISM® Report On Business® always generates discussion and activity in the financial and procurement worlds, but Tuesday’s unveiling of the August PMI® data brought a cacophony of reaction, reflected in analysts’ memos to investors, supply managers’ continuing global-trade indigestion — and declining markets and treasury-bond yields.
However, the image that summed up the situation most succinctly could be found in the Report On Business® itself — specifically, the first four lines of the PMI® data chart, which gave the state of the U.S. manufacturing sector with the subtlety of a solar flare:
After Tuesday’s report revealed a composite PMI® of 49.1 percent, the first below-50 reading since August 2016 and the lowest number since January 2016 (48 percent), Timothy R. Fiore, CPSM, C.P.M., Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, was equally blunt during a conference call with reporters: “The manufacturing economy has entered a contracting period,” he said.
The US manufacturing sector shrank last month for the first time in three years. The ISM index points to a slump in nearly every category: new orders, production, & employment. "There is an undercurrent of fear and alarm regarding the trade wars." https://t.co/ygxLTNlBbl— scott horsley (@HorsleyScott) September 3, 2019
A decrease in demand did the PMI® in, Fiore said. In a report littered with potential concerns, the brightest flashing sirens are in the New Orders Index (47.2 percent), which fell into contraction territory for the first time since December 2015, and the New Export Orders Index (43.3 percent), which dropped 4.8 percentage points from July. Those figures do not suggest a burgeoning product pipeline.
“Until that New Orders Index number gets above 50, and at best 53 or 54, I see the other four (PMI®) subindexes remaining at a lower level,” Fiore says. “The consumption side, which is measured by the Production and Employment indexes, is capable of addressing any future demand. So, the key is for demand to rise again, and I can't predict when that will happen.” (The five equally-weighted indexes that factor into the PMI® are New Orders, Production, Employment, Supplier Deliveries and Inventories.)
Welp. The manufacturing sector contracted in August. @ism reports its manufacturing index for Aug clocked in at 49.1- contraction territory- AND new orders were 47.2 - which doesnt bode well for the sector looking forward. #tradewar— Jennifer Schonberger (@Jenniferisms) September 3, 2019
Among the other sobering August data:
●Nine of the 10 PMI® subindexes were below 50 percent, with Supplier Deliveries the exception. That is the most since April 2009, when all 10 were contracting, with a composite index reading of 39.9 percent.
●About 25 percent of Business Survey Committee members’ comments were related to employment — positions not being filled or concerns about maintaining current staff levels.
●For the first time this year, there were more negative (a 1.6-to-1 ratio) than positive comments on the economy.
●The food, beverage and tobacco products industry had the strongest — but still modest — expansion, Fiore said. However, the chemical products and high-tech industries that made up a significant portion of the U.S. manufacturing economy are either contracting or not growing at their previous rates.
.@ISM® Report On Business® survey respondent in chemical products: “While business is strong, there is an undercurrent of fear and alarm regarding the trade wars and a potential #recession.” https://t.co/f2R8RmfV7M #ISMROB #economy— Institute for Supply Management (@ism) September 3, 2019
The last below-50 PMI® reading in August 2016 was a one-month blip; the following month began a three-year expansion. When asked if this month’s data could be a similar outlier, Fiore said that the previous four months of expansion softening suggest that the current contraction could be more lasting, especially if new orders don’t improve.
“This contraction is different because nine of the 10 subindexes are contracting, and the New Orders and New Export Orders indexes are low,” Fiore said. “The top six big industries are not performing how they were, particularly with new orders. The supply chain and production (segments of the manufacturing sector) are well-positioned to support any rises in demand. But the demand just isn't there.”
The Report On Business® roundup:
Associated Press: Survey: U.S. Manufacturing Activity Contracted in August. “Surveys of purchasing managers this week have suggested that the uncertainty generated by the trade war has hit manufacturers on a global scale. While surveys of purchasing managers showed mixed results in China, manufacturing activity declined across Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. In Europe, German manufacturing activity remained close to July’s seven-year low, as new orders fell, producers scaled back output, and job losses rose steeply.”
Bloomberg: U.S. Manufacturing Gauge Contracts for First Time in Three Years. “The data add to concern a broader U.S. recession is coming and may complicate the re-election chances of President Donald Trump, whose pledges to revive manufacturing have been a signature issue. At the same time, Trump’s escalating tariffs on imports from China have been a major reason behind factory weakness that threatens to spread to consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the world’s largest economy.”
CNBC: U.S. Manufacturing Contracts For the First Time in Three Years Amid China Trade War. “It slips into contraction territory ... Definitely disappointing, but keep in perspective that pretty much everybody has been waiting for this to slip into contraction territory,” analyst Rick Santelli said. “We all know there are issues with global trade that are starting to catch pretty much every large economy.”
CNN: U.S. Manufacturing Sector Shrinks For First Time in Three Years. “Although one month is not a trend, it's yet another data point that suggests a steady downturn at American factories. U.S. stocks, which were already down before ISM released its report, took a turn for the worse.”
ISM New Orders Index, a component of the Conference Boards LEI, report was the lowest since 2012. New Orders typically lead ISM Headline Index by a few months. More downside ahead
— Andrew H. Smith (@theandrewhsmith) September 3, 2019
Financial Times: U.S. Manufacturing Contracts For First Time Since 2016 Amid Tension. “For part of 2015 and 2016, the ISM manufacturing index showed a contraction. Overall GDP growth however, stayed positive, hovering for most of that time around 2 percent. But the details of Tuesday's ISM report were ugly, with new orders, production and employment subindexes all contracting last month. New export orders shrunk for the second consecutive month and fell to their lowest since April 2009, when global trade was hit following the financial crisis.”
MarketWatch: ISM Manufacturing Index Falls Below 50, Signals Contraction. “The manufacturing sector has been hammered by U.S.-China trade tensions. The index has fallen nearly 10 points since the trade war began last summer. … The larger question is whether the contraction in manufacturing will lead to a steep downturn in the broader economy. That could happen if businesses stop hiring and begin to shed workers.”
ISM manufacturing index is now officially in contraction territory. Still above the level that suggests an economy-wide recession, but direction isn't good. https://t.co/Yp6J1qn8cf— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman) September 3, 2019
Reuters: U.S. Manufacturing Shrinks For First Time in Three Years. “Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the ISM index would slip to 51.0 in August. The year-long U.S.-China trade war is eroding business sentiment, with business investment contracting in the second quarter for the first time in more than three years. That, together with an inventory bloat, is undercutting manufacturing, with output declining for two straight quarters.”
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Factory Activity Contracted in August. “The manufacturing numbers cover August, a month in which President Trump and China announced new tariffs on billions of dollars of consumer goods, which went into effect on Sunday, escalating the trade conflict. ... A decline in new export orders to the lowest level in a decade offers a strong indication that trade tensions are crimping manufacturers.”
The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index, which covers a much broader range of the economy and proved far more resilient when manufacturing slowed in 2015-16, will come out on Thursday. It has also been slowing in recent months, but not to the same level as manufacturing - yet.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) September 3, 2019
The Non-Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business® will be released on Thursday. For the most up-to-date content on the PMI® and NMI® reports, use #ISMROB on Twitter.


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Businesses' new found focus on the environment may be welcome, but according to Conrad MacKerron, it is taking attention away from workers' rights issues – and the credibility of the entire green business movement could be at risk
Can it be that our green heroes Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt care about the cachet of owning a Prius, but not about the abused workers making these feel-good cars? A report from the National Labor...
Tech giant quadruples number of locations for US customers to hand in old iPhones as part of recycling and reuse drive
GreenBiz releases its latest update on soaring renewables demand from US corporates
Record amount of future new wind capacity will be financed from last year's investment, according to WindEurope
Nation known for its natural beauty is under pressure with extinctions, polluted rivers and blighted lakes


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November 24, 2016 - By Vivian Park · 0 Comments
The stock of APPIPHANY TECH HOLDINGS CORPORATION (OTCMKTS:APHD) registered a decrease of 40% in short interest. APHD’s total short interest was 300 shares in November as published by FINRA. Its down 40% from 500 shares, reported previously. The stock increased 3.81% or $0.0007 on November 23, hitting $0.0188. About 10,205 shares traded hands. Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp (OTCMKTS:APHD) has risen 108.89% since April 27, 2016 and is uptrending. It has outperformed by 103.48% the S&P500.
Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp. is a development-stage company. The company has a market cap of $757,118. The Firm is a global brand protection company. It currently has negative earnings. The Company’s business model will encompass all areas of protecting intellectual property of global brand owners through risk management, technology innovation and strategic supply chain strategies.
Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp., incorporated on February 24, 2010, is a development-stage company. The Firm is a global brand protection company. The Company’s business model will encompass all areas of protecting intellectual property of global brand owners through risk management, technology innovation and strategic supply chain strategies. Specifically, its core focus is online brand protection or Internet monitoring. The Company’s Web platform allows it and its clients to search, identify and take action against illicit, counterfeit, and diverted sales of products purporting to be their product online. The Company’s other offerings include risk management services, custom application software development (Serialization/T&T) and print technology services (forensics, labels and hangtags). The Company’s clientele is focused on the luxury goods industry, as well as the footwear and apparel market. The Firm has three primary monitoring platforms: Watchdoga Protect, Watchdoga Locate and Watchdog Weba. The Firm has limited operations.
More notable recent Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp (OTCMKTS:APHD) news were published by: Prnewswire.com which released: “Appiphany Technologies Announces Exclusive Rights For Watchdog Online …” on January 20, 2016, also Prnewswire.com with their article: “Appiphany Technologies Receives Shareholder and Board Approval for Name Change” published on April 29, 2016, Prnewswire.com published: “Appiphany retains screenwriter for MMA Animals cartoon series” on August 27, 2013. More interesting news about Appiphany Technologies Holdings Corp (OTCMKTS:APHD) were released by: Seekingalpha.com and their article: “Nymox: This Offshore ‘Biotech’ Promotion Will Go To Zero (Yes, Zero)” published on August 10, 2016 as well as Reuters.com‘s news article titled: “Appihpany Technologies Holdings names new president, CEO and CFO – Form 8-K” with publication date: October 14, 2014.
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By Vivian Park


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The PC Agency’s Paul Charles sets out how to make sector stronger
It’s been nearly two months since we set about quashing quarantine. It has been a rollercoaster ride but progress was made last Friday when the government finally published not just one, but two lists of where consumers can go without having to quarantine on their return to England. Quarantine measures are being firmly squashed as of this Friday.
The lists, featuring some 70 countries, have caused widespread confusion as they don’t indicate which countries you’re actually allowed to stay in without having to quarantine for 14 days. So the travel trade and consumers have plenty of research to do if they’re to be 100% certain of where they can go. To help the industry, The PC Agency has produced a clear list of the 25 countries you can go to today without having to quarantine on arrival, or when you get back to the UK.
There have been several missed opportunities, by the government and our industry, which have dented chances of the sector’s recovery.
Here’s my 10-point checklist of learnings so far:
- The industry could have avoided the negativity of quarantine, and the slump in bookings as a result, if UK airports had taken a greater leadership role at the start of the crisis. Airport testing is the only answer to boosting confidence in flying again as well as screening visitors entering the UK to prevent another wave.
- Coronavirus is the only issue that lobby groups have had to focus on in recent months. They need to reset their strategies and speak with one voice to protect and grow our industry. Everything in the next year is about how we adapt and move on from the coronavirus era. Lobby groups need to work together and represent everyone as the travel chain is so interconnected.
- The refunds saga has dogged our sector since March and left consumers, and government, lacking confidence in how the travel sector handles itself. Travel brands need to start building their cash piles so they’re in a position to pay back customers should such a health crisis happen again. The best firms have refunded quickly.
- The quarantine policy emerged partly because there is no Tourism Minister currently. The Government showed its lack of experience on travel and tourism issues. If a Tourism Minister had been in place, they hopefully would have strongly advised Downing Street what a disastrous impact this would have on visitor numbers to the UK, as well as on travel firms booking UK citizens outbound.
- Travel became a plaything among several Government departments. The Foreign Office, Home Office, Department for Transport and Downing Street have all been involved in the quarantine and travel corridor policy, adding to confusion and miscommunication. Our industry needs to tackle Government to ensure it is not used as a football in future.
- Do not promise a date and then fail to stick to it. The Government said that 29th June would see travel corridors introduced but then arguments with the devolved administration in Scotland led to its delay. Every day of quarantine was another day of lost jobs and slower bookings in the sector.
- When introducing a new policy across the UK, ensure that the right people have access to the IT equipment to help enforce it. It’s embarrassing to see the Scottish Health Secretary admit that not a single check has been carried out on travellers obliged to stay at home under quarantine rules.
- When outlining a new policy, don’t confuse the public and the travel trade with two lists with different countries on each one. Consumers just want to know where they can go, and the travel trade just wishes to book accurately. Two lists aren’t better than one.
- Improve communications with the UK public to enable the travel sector to flourish. Other countries have talked up their travel firms and given clear roadmaps to help them out of lockdown. Lack of confidence has fed through to consumers.
- Lay out a plan for helping the sector thrive. Let’s have a UK Government ad campaign aimed at promoting domestic and global tourism. Travel & tourism accounts for 1 in 4 jobs in the UK and is the backbone of our economy. It needs pump-priming.
Ten points, all aimed at making things stronger in our sector in future. As we hopefully emerge from the worst slump in our sector’s history, let’s focus on creating a world-class industry backed by government and loved by consumers.
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The iPhone XS and XS Max will be available in the UK next week, while the XR will be here next month.
The XS Max – the premium model – features the largest screen and battery that Apple has ever used for an iPhone, which is reflected by a £1,099 starting price, which rises to £1,449 for the 512GB storage version.
The XR is the relative ‘budget’ version, with a starting price of £749. It features many of the same specifications as the two XS models, with some drawbacks, such as having only a single rear camera and an LCD screen – unlike the OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen of the XS.
Buying a new iPhone is never MoneySaving – but if you’re determined to get one anyway, buying it in the right way could save you almost £600 over two years compared with the cost of a standard contract.
See below for a round-up of the different ways to buy an iPhone XS or XS Max.
For full info on cutting the cost of an iPhone, see our Cheap iPhones guide.
What features do the new iPhones have?
Apple has said its new iPhone XS and XS Max take the smartphone to the “next level”.
They feature some of the following specifications:
- iPhone XS – 5.8-inch Super Retina OLED display, dual 12-megapixel telephoto and wide-angle rear cameras, 7-megapixel front-facing camera, 4K video recording at up to 60 frames per second, up to 20 hours’ talk-time battery life.
- iPhone XS Max – 6.5-inch Super Retina OLED display, dual 12-megapixel telephoto and wide-angle rear cameras, 7-megapixel front-facing camera, 4K video recording at up to 60 frames per second, up to 25 hours’ talk-time battery life.
- iPhone XR – 6.1-inch Liquid Retina HD display, 12-megapixel rear camera, 7-megapixel front-facing camera, 4K video recording at up to 60 frames per second, up to 25 hours’ talk-time battery life.
Buying a new handset on a traditional mobile contract from the major mobile networks can be £100s more expensive than buying the handset outright and pairing with a cheap Sim.
Yet reseller sites such as Mobiles.co.uk* (owned by Carphone Warehouse) or MobilePhonesDirect are almost always cheaper than going direct to the network. They can sometimes even undercut buying upfront – and right now we’ve found pre-order deals on EE, O2 and Vodafone that can save you up to £560 over the two-year contract for the same deal if bought direct, and up to £100 cheaper than a comparable handset and Sim combo.
Our top-pick iPhone XS deal with a high data allowance works out £598 less than O2’s comparable standard two-year deal. Via Mobiles.co.uk* (part of Carphone Warehouse), if you’re an O2 newbie, you’ll get 15GB of data with unlimited minutes and texts for £34/month, though you’ll have to stump up a hefty £410 upfront – so £1,226 over the two years. That’s also about £60 cheaper over the two years than the cheapest alternative we found buying the phone upfront and pairing with an equivalent Sim.


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Developer Enrique Bonansea released the Animoji app through his company Emonster, a software development firm that is based in Tokyo. Animoji is a fast, free and easy-to-use tool to animate your text and email messages. Apple has a record of the said app as it is now available for download on the App Store.
Tokyo's Emonster kk filed the case against Apple on Wednesday in a San Francisco federal court and stressed that they possess the US trademark on the term "animoji" and Apple's use of the word is a prime example of deliberate infringement. It now enjoys a 4-star rating, from the seven people who took the time to rate it. Here is an excerpt from the lawsuit: This is a textbook case of willful, deliberate trademark infringement.
Apple claims through a petition, obtained by The Verge, filed in September that the trademark is registered to a non-existent entity thanks to a clerical error and, therefore, Emonster does not actually own the trademark.
According to the official suit papers or we can say complaint, Apple was aware about the Emonster's ownership of the actual Animoji application which was available on the iTunes from the year 2014. On reports that Apple new about the existence of his app, he says Apple had to know about it since the company had complied when he had requested several competing apps to be taken down. Instead of using the creativity on which Apple developed its worldwide reputation, Apple simply plucked the name from a developer on its own App Store. Bonansea claims he was approached by Apple "fronts", like The Emoji Law Group LLC., to sell the property this past summer. A company is suing Apple for stealing the name of their product and releasing it without any information. "Yet Apple made the conscious decision to try to pilfer the name for itself - regardless of the consequences". But even this did not save the "Apple" company from plagiarism. Apple has also tried to purchase the Trademark from the officials, however they have fairy denied the trademark deal at that time and Apple has used the same trademark without their permission or the official agreement which is something uninteresting to the Emonsters. It turns out, the trademark was originally filed by Bonansea was for his company emonster inc. It is a biometric security scheme that is not available on any previous iPhone models, including the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. The lawsuit also cites that Emonster is seeking unspecified money damages and a court order that would prohibit Apple to use the term "animoji" while the lawsuit is still ongoing.


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No loafing around at the research farm
Here at Sollio Agriculture’s research farm, we leave nothing to chance. It takes several years of research and field work all over the country to get a product to your field. Our team will even hand make certain varieties and use them to bake bread. It’s that kind of attention to detail and innovative spirit that ultimately helps farmers improve their yields.
When summer ends at the research farm, there’s no loafing around. To make sure that Sollio Agriculture is marketing only the most high-performance cereal varieties, our experts study them down to the most minute details. They even bake their own bread to test the flour’s baking quality.
“Not all wheats make good bread flour. If we want our farmers to be able to sell their crops to mills, we need to develop cultivars specifically designed for that market,” explains Sollio Agriculture researcher Roxanne Henrie. She starts by selecting the flours most likely to produce good bread. Then, her colleagues get to work. In the research farm kitchen, everything is precisely calculated, weighed and measured. “We follow each step to the letter,” Henrie says.
Once the bread is out of the oven, our experts check for volume, colour and air bubbles. They also compare it with control bread already known to be high quality. “These tests allow us to predict the chances that mills will be interested in a particular flour,” Henrie adds. “When we develop bread wheat varieties, it opens up new markets for farmers.”
Striving for better yields
Henrie’s work and that of her colleagues doesn’t stop at breadmaking, of course. At the research farm and in other locations across Canada, our experts test many varieties of forage crops and cereals.
“It takes years before a new cultivar makes it to market,” Henrie says. “We have to make sure that our products are well adapted to their environment and that they offer the best possible yield for farmers.”


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TORONTO, June 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Outsourced marketing and sales company 4AEGIS, headquartered in Toronto, recently won a quarterly sales award for their outstanding performance on behalf of a major Canadian merchant processing client during the first quarter of 2017.
The quarterly Campaign Cup trophy, awarded to the top-performing office among those eligible focused on the same campaign nationwide, went to 4AEGIS for their high quality and stellar sales metrics during early 2017. The firm has won this award several times over the past three years, evidence of their consistent commitment to excellence.
"I am pleased to accept this award on behalf of my dedicated team," said President David Lee. "We are driven to outperforming the competition while exceeding client expectations, and I look forward to great things to come in 2017 and beyond."
4AEGIS is changing the marketing game, providing a personalized sales approach to customer acquisition and retention in alignment with the client's business development efforts. The firm represents industry leaders in finance, technology, energy, and telecommunications. 4AEGIS fosters a dynamic culture where professional and personal growth in encouraged and also serves as a training ground for entrepreneurs. The company values philanthropy and gives back to the community and those in need through involvement with Operation Smile and other nonprofits.
Check out 4AEGIS on Facebook.
One of Canada's leading professional sales firms, 4AEGIS offers targeted sales services with a focus on bringing the client high-quality results and growth. For more information, call 416-491-7171 or go to http://www.aegisinc.ca/.
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/prestigious-sales-award-won-by-4aegis-300472443.html


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Eat24, the food delivery app, has figured out how to get people to watch YouTube pre-roll ads. The secret? Tell them not to. In a recent campaign, the app literally told viewers to “Skip This Ad,” — and Jedi mind tricked them into watching. Here’s Eat24’s rationalization:
“In all likelihood, most viewers would pre-position their cursor over the ‘Skip Ad’ button, ready to blast away our commercial ASAP. And who could blame them?”
But the reverse psychology approach seems to have struck a nerve, as they explained in a blog post about the experiment.
The video has more than 581,000 views on YouTube …
… and saw a 75 percent increase in app downloads the weeks the campaign was running. More than 90 percent of viewers actually completed watching the ad, which had a staggeringly high click-through rate of 7.1 percent.
It’s not the first time a brand was clever about their preroll placement. Last year Volkswagen had a similar gimmick in its Beetle campaign. The car, the ad said, “automatically shifts gears and skips ads for you.”
Nor is it the first time Eat24, which has been known to place display ads on porn sites, has itself dabbled in unorthodox advertising. But the cutesy approach appears to have had a real impact. While Eat24 had to pay for each of those “Skip This Ad” views, it claims it resulted in “thousands more orders from new customers.”
More in Marketing
Some content creators are using generative AI tools to spark new levels of creativity and innovation and are sharing their experiences online in how they’re using these tools to streamline their workflows and boost productivity.
In this edition of the weekly Digiday+ Research Briefing, we share focal points from Digiday’s recently released reports on marketers’ evolving social media tactics, including how they’re using Facebook less and diving into YouTube Shorts more.
In 2023, some brands’ executive boardrooms are still insulated from the chill of crypto winter, for better or worse. But the rising pressure of crypto skepticism has made it more urgent than ever for companies to figure out how to use blockchain technology to support their core offerings and customer base rather than simply dropping branded NFTs and hoping for the best.


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Internet adoption abroad
Our colleagues at the Pew Global Attitudes Project have just released figures on computer use and internet adoption in 13 countries. The new data are available here. One of the more interesting headline findings is that middle-aged people are among the fastest growing internet cohorts in many of these countries. The Net isn’t just a plaything for the young.


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Beyond Meat Pitching Beast Burger to Big Leagues
The veg company visited the Mets to show the players its protein-packed Beast burger.
June 30, 2014
Beyond Meat is attempting to bring its veggie burger, The Beast, to the big leagues by pitching the faux product to professional players. Recently, Beyond Meat’s founder Ethan Brown traveled to the New York Mets’ home turf so the team could sample the product. According to the Wall Street Journal, many of the ball players were intrigued by the faux burger, and had to double-check that it contained no red meat. The Met’s third baseman and captain, David Wright, who gave up red meat six years ago because it made him “lethargic,” may become spokesman for the product. The Beast may very well become a mainstay in the athletic community—not only does it contain less fat and non of the cholesterol of its animal-product counterpart, but it has more protein and iron than beef and more omega-3s than salmon.


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SOLON, Ohio – ECRM has transformed its brand identity with an updated, modernized logo that signals a new era for the company.
The company says that since it was founded in 1994, it has been helping buyers and sellers achieve success. ECRM adds that it has evolved with the marketplace, enhancing its business and processes to better serve its customers. And to help those customers stay on top of the increasing number of new product launches and category disruptions occurring each year, ECRM says it has transformed its service offering into a comprehensive, technology‑enabled and high‑touch suite of category management support solutions that deliver greater efficiency and effectiveness to the buying and selling process.
“ECRM’s consultative approach results in a much more tailored experience for buyers attending its category programs, which delivers me a productive schedule of appointments with a diverse array of qualified suppliers,” said Kenneth Hausmann, senior category manager for Dairy, Frozen & Bulk Foods at Fresh Thyme Farmers Market. “In addition, ECRM’s RangeMe platform is a perfect digital complement to these in‑person programs that extends our product discovery capabilities year‑round.”
ECRM says its new brand identity is a reflection of this transformation and the company’s relentless dedication to serving its customers’ needs via technology and enhanced services:
• Technology-Enabled Offering: To expand its capabilities, ECRM acquired RangeMe in May 2017 and has been continually integrating the product discovery platform’s powerful functionality into its industry leading category programs and everyday processes. The extensive reach of the RangeMe platform allows buyers to search and access more than 150,000 suppliers, making it an essential category management tool. This online functionality seamlessly augments ECRM’s category programs by expanding its reach, facilitating communication and leveraging proprietary data to drive decision‑making capabilities.
• High-Touch Services: ECRM differentiates itself through continuous engagement with its customers via a large, service‑oriented Client Success team. The team’s capabilities have been enriched with a newly revamped menu of category management support services specifically designed to better align buyer needs and objectives with supplier capabilities. The customer centric approach and on-demand accessibility of the Client Success team ensures more targeted and relevant connections and superior outcomes for category program customers.
“As a long‑time ECRM program participant and RangeMe Premium Verified member, I’ve experienced firsthand how ECRM’s evolution has created more diverse opportunities and expanded ROI for suppliers like myself,” said Shiv Joshi, managing director of Greystone Premium Organic. “Its category programs put us face‑to‑face with the right buyers in an incredibly efficient and intimate manner, and RangeMe helps extend our reach even further with additional exclusive opportunities to be discovered.”
ECRM’s new brand identity has a design that’s strong, bold and modern, yet unquestionably ECRM, the company says.
“ECRM has done an amazing job adapting to fulfill its customers’ needs,” said Greg Farrar, CEO of ECRM. “Now is the time for the brand to embody the company that we have become.”


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Google has offered a few ‘Go’ variants of their apps that are designed for entry-level devices running Android Go. This includes apps like Google Go, Google Assistant Go, Gallery Go, Google Maps Go, Google Camera Go and others. The company adds new apps to the lineup a lot of times and also recently released a stripped-down version of Gmail on Play Store.
The Gmail Go app brings a lighter experience of Gmail for all devices which features the essentials. According to a 9to5Google report, Gmail Go listing on Play Store is identical to the normal Gmail app except the new icon with ‘Go’ badge at the bottom. The listing also specifies that Gmail Go provides the “Gmail you love, now lighter and just fast” but still has the same screenshots like the normal version. The app is different from the full-blown Gmail app.
The UI of Gmail Go has the same structure like the normal app but it doesn’t have a few features. For example, the app doesn’t have a bottom bar because the Google Meet has not integrated with the app. The UI elements of the app are also flatter if compared to the normal Gmail app without layering and shadows. It uses a white outline for the search bar and Compose button to help them stand out.
The report also says that the frame rate of the app has been capped so that it results in a perceptible lag if users scroll through the app. This is probably a performance optimization that would benefit devices with low-end specifications. The app is not restricted to Android Go devices and is available for everyone. In case users doesn’t like using the normal Gmail app, they can try the Gmail Go by downloading it and if the app is not available on their devices, they can sideload it from APKMirror.


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Long-time magnetic storage and electronics maker Maxell on Friday launched a lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of violating 10 U.S. patents, some of them inherited from Hitachi.
Three of the patents — 6,748,317, 6,580,999, and 6,430,498 — are connected to walking navigation, and Maxell cites features like Find My Friends and pedestrian routes in Apple Maps as infringements. A third patent, 8,339,493, involves Apple camera design, while a fourth (7,116,438) relates to wireless communication and AirDrop file transfers.
Also cited are Maxell's 6,408,193 covering cellphone technology, 6,928,306 for ring alerts, 6,329,794 for controlling power consumption, 10,212,586 for unlocking one device with another, and 10,084,991, which the company says is violated by FaceTime video calls and iTunes video.
A wide range of Apple devices are listed as infringing, including iPhones, iPads, and Macs up to 2018 models. The iPhone XS is repeatedly cited as an example in Maxell's complaint, filed through a U.S. District Court in Texarkana, Tex.
The company is seeking a jury trial, compensatory damages, and both preliminary and permanent injunctions.
"Since at least June 2013, Apple has been aware of Maxell's patents and has had
numerous meetings and interactions regarding its infringement of these patents," the complaint charges. "These meetings included Apple's representatives being provided with detailed information regarding Maxell's patents, the developed technology, and Apple's ongoing use of this patented technology. Through this process, Apple's representatives requested and received detailed explanations regarding Maxell's patents and allegations. Maxell believed that the parties could reach a mutually beneficial solution and to that end considered a potential business transaction and continued to answer multiple inquiries from Apple over the course of several years, including communicating with Apple as recently as late 2018."
Based on its track record Apple will mostly likely try to get the case dismissed or settled out of court, given the potential cost of losing a trial. This often succeeds, but Maxell is more prominent than most plaintiffs, and the company isn't immune — earlier today a judge ruled against it a Qualcomm patent suit, awarding the latter $31 million in damages.


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Wall Street: Thursday close
SANTA Claus came to Wall Street a few days late as good cheer about the outlook for high tech delivered a powerful rally.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which started the year with a 50-point gain on Wednesday, spiked higher by 98.74 points or 0.98% to 10,172.14. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Index, up 1.5% in the first day's trading of the New Year after a 20% drop in 2001, leapt 65.02 points or 3.28% to 2044.27.
Techs were front and centre as broker recommendations outweighed a profit warning or two. EMC, among the biggest heavyweight losers on the Nasdaq last year, vaulted $1.99 or 13.5% to $16.80 after Salomon Smith Barney said it saw brighter days ahead for the data storage company. Rival McData surged $3.58 or 13.3% to $30.46.
Strong interest in semiconductors continued, with an index tracking chipmakers up 6% on the day and 60% since early October. Intel jumped $2.52 or 7.6% to $35.52. Microngained $3.27 or 9.8% to $36.51 and Texas Instruments firmed $1.88 or 6.5% to $30.70.
Hewlett-Packard continued its recovery, gaining $1.31 or 6% to $22.96. Microsoft rose $2.19 or 3.3% to $69.23. Apple Computer tacked on 36 cents or 1.6% to $23.66 as the company promoted an unspecified new product announcement scheduled for next week. Cisco Systems, another of the big losers of 2000, regained $1.36 or 7% to $20.59.
Peregrine Software, which makes programmes to help companies manage personnel and inventory, plunged $5.26 or 36% to $9.25 as it warned that its numbers would fall short of expectations due to 'challenging global conditions.'
Weekly jobless claims rose 36,000 to 447,000, a sign that the unemployment situation remained weak despite retail hirings over the holiday shopping season. A more comprehensive report on unemployment is due out on Friday and economists expect it will be this data which dictates whether the US Federal Reserve Board will cut interest rates for the 12th time in just over a year when it meets again on 30 January. Richard Rippe, economist at Prudential Securities, said the report would be key to discerning the strength of the US economy, which slipped into recession officially in March. 'Economic signs in recent weeks point to stability, but if weakness continues to prevail, the Fed might ease one more time,' he said. 'The labour signs are critical to judging the short-term situation and so the national employment report due tomorrow is critical. We expect a rise in the unemployment rate.'
General Motors said vehicle sales rose 7% in the past month and announced it would offer rebates of as much as $2002 per vehicle to attract customers as it drives home its recent gains against old rival Ford. GM shares climbed 71 cents or 1.5% to $49.35. Dow Chemical gained $1.09 or 3.2% to $35.28 after its profit warning coincided with an upgrade from Merrill Lynch.
Among Dow components, Walt Disney added 67 cents or 3.1% to $22.12 on an upbeat outlook from chairman Michael Eisner and Alcoa rose 43 cents or 1.2% to $36.11.
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- Watch the BANNED Land Rover ad that 'misrepresented' parking sensors
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Online betting giant 888 Holdings has hailed data-driven marketing as a significant factor in its “landmark year” which saw it add almost 1.5 million new customers and double its profits as the company cashed in on a surge in online gambling during global Covid-19 lockdowns.
Group revenue at the Gibraltar-based business, whose brands include 888casino, 888poker, 888sport, and Wink Bingo soared 52% to $849.7m (£607.6m) in the 12 months to December 31, up from $560.3m in the same period last year.
Adjusted pre-tax profit was up 218% year-on-year to $116m, with 58% growth in regulated markets, as customers gambled in their droves to ease the boredom of lockdown. UK revenues rocketed 63%, after 888 launched more than 700 new games in its casino business during 2020.
The results are likely to be a major concern for organisations which have to deal with problem gamblers, however, especially since the release of Gambling Commission figures last month that showed Covid restrictions towards the end of last year were accompanied by yet another a spike in online gambling.
The data revealed that the gross gambling yield among the biggest operators increased by 30% between November and December, and the total number of bets rose by 12% and the number of active players rose by 6% over the same period.
The Gambling Commission’s analysis also found the number of online slot bets rose to six billion and active accounts rose to three million in December – both records for online slots during the coronavirus pandemic period.
At the time, Commission said people were likely to be spending more time at home than usual and could be feeling vulnerable as a result of current coronavirus restrictions and their impact.
It warned: “Operators need to be mindful about the potential of some consumers to be increasing their spend on some of the more intensive products whilst at the same time still engaging in real event betting activity, which was not meaningfully available during the initial lockdown.”
Nevertheless, 888 Holdings is decidedly upbeat, having launched the first-ever in-house sports betting platform across multiple markets as well as its first mobile poker platform – Poker8 – which the group said had helped support 48% revenue growth in its poker division.
888 chief executive Itai Pazner said: “2020 was a landmark year for 888, with our team navigating the many challenges presented by a global pandemic to deliver record financial results, and significant progress against our strategic priorities.
“We welcomed a record number of new members to our brands, nearly one and a half million, with our differentiated products and our big data supporting highly effective marketing.
“We enter 2021 with strong momentum, with a record level of customers, and with a positive reaction to our suite of new products and innovations. As a result, as well as the group’s strengths as a product-centric, responsible, and diversified operator, the board believes that 888 has an outstanding platform to deliver continued strategic progress during 2021 and beyond.”
Bets are off for Ray and Jose as celebrity ad ban looms
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The DAIRY Act was introduced by US representative (R-WI) and co-chair of the Congressional Dairy Farm Caucus, Sean Duffy, with support from the American Dairy Coalition (ADC) who said it “will work hard with Rep. Duffy to move this bill to the finish line.”
Expansion of H2-A program
The new legislation allows dairy farmers to better utilize the H-2A visa worker program, which previously could not be used due to its stipulation of year-round labor.
“Our farmers provide their products to market year-round, not just for a season. Dairy farmers and dairy workers alike deserve more certainty in this labor program, and my bill does just that,” Duffy said in a statement.
According to the ADC, dairy farmers have been waiting for a provision to utilize the H2-A visa category to legally employ immigrant workers to fill important roles that domestic workers continually pass up. The ADC said the H2-A visa is a vital tool to provide year-round labor for dairy operations.
However, NMPF president Jim Mulhern said last month that the approach to addressing dairy farmers’ needs should not be “centered on reforming H-2A” and instead requires “another approach.”
Labor remains forefront issue for dairy
The issue of immigrant labor has been a top-of-mind concern for the US dairy sector as 51% of the dairy industry workers are foreign-born, this site previously reported.
However, small dairy farms have spoken out against changes to immigration legislation because it would only benefit “mega dairies” and that increased immigrant labor has caused an oversupply of milk making it impossible for small, independent dairies to compete in the marketplace.
“We have an oversupply of milk in this country that is exacerbated by the dairies that depend on an illegal labor force,” a small dairy farmer commented on DairyReporter.
“I am tired of hearing how large dairies will face their demise without illegal labor. Any business model dependent on illegal labor is a flawed business model that should face demise.”


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Nando's fans haven't been able to get their peri-peri fix in the city centre recently as the chain's Cabot Circus restaurant has been closed.
Thankfully it's not a permanent closure and the restaurant is instead undergoing a refresh.
The top floor eatery closed on March 4 so the refurbishment could be carried out.
It is thought part of the plans will see the restaurant install original Southern African artwork and more unique design features.
When will it reopen?
The team behind the restaurant has confirmed the branch will reopen on April 11.
A spokesperson for Nando’s said: “Our Cabot Circus restaurant is currently closed as we give it a bit of a refresh.
"The new restaurant will feature unique design features and original Southern African art.
“We cannot wait to open the doors and start serving local peri-peri fans next week.”
Last month alarm bells were raised over the future of the Nando's restaurant in The Mall at Cribbs Causeway after a statement on its Facebook page was posted which read "Nando’s in the Mall will be closing at the end of March."
However this turned out to be a bogus page, and a spokesperson at the restaurant confirmed that it will remain open.


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A few weeks ago, 11 Bit Studios (the creators of Anomaly: Warzone Earth and Anomaly: Korea) announced a "secret game" deal, that offered a special deal and bonuses towards an unannounced game for a small amount of money. Today that game has been revealed...and it's Anomaly 2. 11 Bit has retur...
The last time we spoke with the guys from 11 Bit Studios (right before Anomaly Warzone Korea landed), they had plenty of plans for a huge desktop game they were working on (to be available for PC, Mac and Linux). And now, it appears they've announced the title ... sort of. They haven't actually...
Software Updatesmore updates
- Apple Remote Desktop updated with Yosemite support
- OS X Yosemite 10.10.2, iOS 8.1.3 updates now available
- Sports Illustrated 120 SPORTS channel comes to Apple TV
- Logic Pro X update brings AirDrop support, new effects, tools, and more
- Parallels Access 2.5 released, adds file manager, computer-to-computer remote access
- The Google Translate iOS app is about to get a lot smarter


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The use of CE devices in the consumption of OTT video content is increasing rapidly as service providers seek new revenues opportunities, attempt to reach new consumer groups, and look for ways to differentiate their offerings. IMS Research forecasts that in 2016, connected CE devices in the home will account for
EU regulators are investigating whether Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc may have breached EU antitrust laws with patent infringement claims in their global legal battle over the lucrative smartphone and tablet market.
In this podcast we talk to Stephen G. Canton, Chairman and CEO of iCore Networks about the benefits of Voice over Private Internet (VoPI) and disaster recovery tools.
Mobile gaming firm Rovio said on Wednesday its hit game Angry Birds had reached a record 500 million downloads in less than two years since its launch.
ST-Ericsson won a deal to supply chipsets for future Nokia phones based on Windows software, breaking Qualcomm's monopoly over Microsoft's mobile platform.
STMicroelectronics introduced the industry’s first three-axis high-resolution accelerometer with two embedded finite-state machines.
The November 2011 issue deals with consumer electronics including integrating silicon-based EMI suppression devices, smartphone signaling overload, and RF-IF amplifiers. managing power interruption issues and high-reliability passives. The Brainstorm Q&A section asks “How could solid-state lighting benefit the medical device sector?”
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced today its record number of automotive exhibitors at the upcoming 2012 International CES. At least six of the industry’s top ten manufacturers will showcase their latest technologies among CES' enhanced lineup of automotive technology exhibits...
Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp forecast an annual net loss of 420 billion yen ($5.5 billion), its biggest in a decade, as restructuring costs ballooned, and a soaring yen and weak demand in the United States and Europe eroded income.
Consumer electronics giant Sony Corp said on Monday it will split its television business into three divisions to make operations more accountable as part of efforts to turn around the loss-making business.
Amazon.com Inc is in talks with Chinese regulators to bring in its popular e-reader Kindle and its recently announced tablet Kindle Fire, local media reported quoting an Amazon executive.
Google Inc is making another push to bring its Web savvy to television sets, hoping to tap into a vast new market despite consumers' lukewarm reaction to its initial offering.
With little room left to maneuver in the tough TV system-on-chip (SoC) market central to the ambitious Google TV initiative, Google partner Intel Corp. is quietly reshuffling resources away from the connected television semiconductor space and redirecting attention to the more profitable arena of chips for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, according to
HiWave Technologies PLC, a provider of electronic solutions for audio and haptic touch, has announced a high power, modal exciter that generates high quality audio from high impedance substrates such as glass, metal and wood.
Supertex, Inc. introduced HV9861A, an open loop, average current mode control, LED driver integrated circuit (IC) designed to drive LEDs using a buck topology. It is suited for a variety of solid-state lighting applications, including
Sharp Corp cut its full-year operating profit forecast by 12 percent, hit by sliding domestic television sales but the cut was not as bad as the market had feared.
Britain's Virgin Media added 6,300 net new cable customers in the third quarter, reassuring investors after a disappointing second quarter, as subscribers showed a willingness to pay for higher quality services.
Sony Corp is to take over its mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson for 1.05 billion euros ($1.5 billion), as it seeks to exploit its music and video to help it catch smartphone leaders such as Apple Inc.
Nintendo Co Ltd said on Thursday it would make its first ever annual net loss this financial year, cutting earnings guidance for a second time as the soaring yen and weak software sales dealt fresh blows to the former games industry champion.
This is a demo video on how the Texas Instruments TPS92070 high efficiency lighting driver controller reduces part count, size, and cost.
Nokia unveiled two sleek new Microsoft Windows phones on Wednesday in time for Christmas, a first step in the ailing cellphone maker's fightback against Apple and Google.
Bourns, Inc. announced the availability of a new non-contacting magnetic rotary position sensor which is asserted to help increase product lifespan and reliability of applications that operate in harsh and high vibration environments.
AVX Corporation has extended the current rating of the Accu-Guard II Low Current Series to include 200 mA, 150 mA, 125 mA, 100 mA, 75 mA, 62.5 mA and 50 mA versions in a 0603 package. The miniature 0603 low
Microchip Technology Inc. announced an expansion of its Multi-Purpose Flash Plus (MPF+) memory portfolio, with the introduction of the SST39VF80XC and SST39VF160XC. The SST39VF80XC offers 8-Mbit of memory, while the SST39VF160XC offers
In today's podcast we talk to Richard Macary, President of SelectConnect Technologies, about Laser Direct Structuring and three-dimensional molded interconnect devices.


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A new report published by New Zealand economic consultancy, Infometrics, has identified New Zealand’s apple and kiwifruit exports as having “untapped potential'.
Defined by Infometrics as the difference between the potential market and the value of the country's exports to that market, the untapped potential cited in the report refers to New Zealand’s apple exports to Saudi Arabia.
“Saudi Arabia bought $38m in apples a year. New Zealand exported NZ$1m of apples to Saudi Arabia meaning that that country's “untapped potential” to New Zealand was $37m,” reads the report.
Infometrics chief forecaster, and report author, Gareth Kiernan said New Zealand’s horticulture exports appear to have benefitted from the pandemic.
“Covid-19 [has resulted in] overseas consumers with excess savings substituted towards consuming healthy and high-quality produce at home.”
The report, titled Food for thought – export potential from the Top of the South, draws on extensive analysis from a new export intelligence service from Infomerics, Export Market Finder, which works to determine how organisations can grow their exports by prioritising countries that offer the most untapped potential.
“Our data-driven, evidence-based approach to identifying potential export markets is especially effective in identifying less obvious markets,” noted Kiernan.
“This approach also moves market identification away from anecdote and gut feel, which has often been the basis for decisions in the past.”


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While Amazon and Microsoft battle in the cloud wars, this startup quietly built a $175 million business by picking up their slack
- DigitalOcean is a cloud computing startup based in New York, competing with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure by focusing on smaller developers and startups.
- The company exclusively reveals to BI that it's on a $175 million annualized run rate (ARR) for 2017.
- An IPO isn't necessarily in the cards, but the company says it's well-positioned should it choose to do so.
There's a war raging in the cloud as the leader, Amazon Web Services, defends its $16 billion business from the rise of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. The battleground: Lucrative customer deals with Fortune 500 companies.
That battle has created opportunity for DigitalOcean - a New York-based cloud computing startup, founded by guys who met on Craigslist and backed by Andreessen Horowitz, that caters to the individual programmers or startups that value simplicity and flexibility above the business-grade technology offered by Amazon and Microsoft.
And today, DigitalOcean tells Business Insider that it's on track to generate $175 million in revenue this year, in a measure termed annualized run rate, or ARR. That puts DigitalOcean on track for 48% more revenue than the $118 million it generated in 2015.
"We're approaching the cloud market from a totally different angle," says DigitalOcean CEO and cofounder Ben Uretsky. "No one is really paying attention to the smaller market."
To that end, Uretsky says that the company isn't necessarily planning on an IPO soon, and could raise more funding. He does say, however, that he believes the company is well-positioned should it choose to go public.
Here are the other fast facts on DigitalOcean's business, some of which had been reported previously:
- The company claims revenue of $118 million in 2016, up from $77 million in 2015.
- DigitalOcean says that it's been profitable on an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) basis since 2015.
- The company says that spending and costs have stayed flat, even as revenue increases, leading to widening margins "well north of 20%," says Uretsky.
- Uretsky says that the company still has the entirety of its $83 million Series B investment from 2015 in the bank - the money was used as leverage to obtain a $130 million line of credit in early 2016.
- DigitalOcean has 400 employees today, up from 209 at the end of 2015.
'That's not really our sweet spot'
Competing in the cloud is hard. The whole business model hinges on offering companies access to fundamentally unlimited supercomputing power, rented at a rate of pennies per hour. To achieve the kind of scale to make that profitable, a provider needs lots and lots of servers, plus the land, electricity, and manpower to keep them running.
Indeed Uretsky says that it costs "tens of millions" of dollars annually to keep DigitalOcean's cloud running. That's why DigitalOcean opened that $130 million line of credit: It needed to lease out more data centers, and buy the servers to stock them up, just to scale up. Debt was preferable to additional investment, says Uretsky, because it doesn't dilute the equity of existing investors.
In terms of product strategy, co-founder and CMO Mitch Wainer says that DigitalOcean is taking a "different approach" to the likes of Amazon and Microsoft, who make a point of catering their offerings to the needs of large businesses. That's borne out by Dave Bartoletti, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, who tells us that DigitalOcean is very popular among startups, but rarely spotted in the enterprise.
"That's not really our sweet spot," agrees Urestsky.
Instead, as DigitalOcean builds its product, the company is thinking more about simplicity and flexibility. Not every developer needs that whole range of business-class services, he says - they just want something they can use to get coding, simply and easily. Uretsky attributes that approach to the growth of the business: As small customers grow into big companies, Uretsky says, they only accelerate how much they spend with DigitalOcean.
"In the long term, [growth] is because it's easier to build on DigitalOcean than on one of the more complex providers," Uretsky says.
- The 10-year Treasury yield will drop to 3.5% by the end of next year as the massive bond rally will continue, UBS says
- Instagram's crisis highlights the bigger issues the entire ad industry is facing
- Exit polls predict BJP advantage in MP, Rajasthan, Congress win in Chhattisgarh, Telangana and tight contest in Mizoram
- International air travel penetration remains low in India: CAPA
- "Meeting friends is always a delight": PM Modi reacts to 'Melodi' selfie shared by Italian counterpart Georgia Meloni
- WhatsApp testing new feature that lets you search users by their username
- Delhi airport: Flights diverted due to bad smog, bad weather
- Meta expanding child safety measures as scrutiny mounts


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A dish typical to Yucatán has topped a list of the world’s 100 best, compiled by the international traditional food website TasteAtlas.
The cochinita pibil — a marinated, shredded-pork dish typically red in color — has a 4.7 rating on the TasteAtlas Awards 2021, putting it in first place.
It is followed by dishes from Brazil, Poland, Thailand and Italy.
To prepare cochinita pibil, pork is marinated in a combination of annatto paste, bitter orange juice and garlic and then slowly baked, shredded and served on tortillas, tacos, or on its own with shallots, pickled onions, salsa and various roasted vegetables.
The food guide speculated on the origins of the dish.
“Since cochinita means ‘baby pig,’ and pibil means ‘buried’ or ‘underground,’ it acts as a proof that the original recipe used a whole suckling pig that was buried in a pit for roasting.”
It recommended Taquería El Turix in the Mexico City borough of Polanco and La Chaya Maya in Mérida, Yucatán, as two of the best places to sample cochinita pibil.
However, it wasn’t the only Mexican dish to be featured in the world’s top 100. Enmoladas — essentially enchiladas covered in mole sauce — was in 27th place; pozole — a corn stew — was in 58th place and alambre — finely chopped meat and vegetables with tortillas — was in 93rd place.
“Undoubtedly, Mexican gastronomy is magical and surprises us every day, so the place of cochinita pibil as the best food in the world is more than deserved,” the website said.
TasteAtlas is an online encyclopedia of 10,000 foods and drinks, presented as a world map, where users can browse local cuisines and restaurants. It also offers extensive recipes.
With reports from El Universal


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By Mark Walker, Area Manager – Food
When I reflect on what’s happening across the UK, obesity is talked about a lot, and I don’t think we’re in a great place as a nation. Did you know obesity costs the NHS over £6 billion a year!
The High in Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS) regulation comes into force in England later this year and it’s part of Government plans to tackle obesity-related illnesses. It means stores in mainland England with more than 2,000 sq ft of selling space will need to make some big changes to where they display some products – that’s 15 stores in my area and around 1,500 nationally.
We’ve a lot of work ahead of us as a business, to make sure we continue to trade legally when the regulation starts.
What does the HFSS regulation mean for us
You might have read in the news recently that the Government has announced delays to some elements of the HFSS regulation as they seek to ensure the new rules don’t worsen the cost-of-living crisis. This refers to the changes around promoting HFSS products and advertising regulations. There’s no delay to changes to location of HFSS products in-store and online.
So, from 1 October this year, pre-packaged high fat, sugar, salt products such as chocolate, sugary drinks and crisps can’t be displayed in locations where we see lots of customers pass through our stores – e.g. near the front door, near the checkouts, or on our promotion ends. And display units on the shop floor will also only be allowed in authorised places.
To get ready for this, in our impacted stores we’re ‘relaying’ the ambient merchandising space (where products are displayed on the shopfloor), as well as updating our product category planograms (what products are displayed on our shelves). For many stores, this is a massive piece of work.
Hearts and minds
There’s definitely interest across my store team around HFSS, and that grows as we relay the ambient sections in more and more stores. It’s always the way… when you’ve got your first stores going through a relay, store managers further down the relay schedule want to know how it went. So for those who completed them first, it’s inevitably a valuable experience to share.
My store managers and their teams are making the relays happen, which has brought them closer to the HFSS regulation and what it all means. Some have gained an even deeper understanding of HFSS and been seconded into supporting project roles to help with the relays. It’s fantastic to see them getting this development opportunity.
It’s all in the planning
Like many things on this scale, the initial store relays were a bit clunky until we found our feet. The HFSS regulation is government driven, and as a business, we had to come up with a way to engage our teams about it and make it happen. Our Strategy and Transformation team have a robust plan to do this – and that’s really important.
I’ve shared this plan with my store teams to bring the regulation to life with two-way communication through regular Teams calls to talk about what the changes would look and feel like in their stores – this store walk video really helped us all understand what it would mean.
Before we made any changes we did surveys to understand what equipment we had in our stores, such as shelving, so we didn’t get any surprises when we relayed them. I’m pleased to say we’ve not had to abort a planned store relay so far, and that’s a great testament to our planning.
Listen, learn and adapt
As we’ve picked up pace, we’ve captured learnings on what worked well, and what didn’t go to plan. We’ve adapted ‘on-the-go’ to make sure we move forwards and fix any bugs for the store relays further down the line. Hats off to our HFSS Projects Leads who’ve supported us and reacted to our questions and proposals really quickly.
Of course we’ve have encountered challenges along the way. For example, when we started to move products and categories around the store and changed how much space was allocated to them, we found ourselves with some overstocks which inevitably ended-up back in stores’ warehouses. This stock can’t be forgotten about and needs to be managed through the business by our store teams.
Don’t underestimate the power of curiosity
My advice to my fellow area managers and their teams is that our colleagues need to be consciously aware of the HFSS regulation and the many changes it brings. They have to be curious about what’s happening – and that curiosity takes them to a place where their understanding becomes much deeper.
It’s not just in store – when we go home from work, HFSS touches all colleagues in some way or another: from watching the news, visiting other retailers, or chatting with family and friends. It all begins to resonate and make more sense as you go about your daily life. All this helps our colleagues have the right conversations with their customers about HFSS. I’m absolutely certain our customers will understand the importance of what we’re changing and why we’re doing it.
Our customers won’t be able to see HFSS products on the promotion ends from 1 October, and they’ll likely shop our aisles much more. But this’ll give them more choice in what to buy and the opportunity to make some positive changes and improved choices in how they shop and what they eat.
For more information of HFSS and the work we’re doing to get ready for the regulation, visit our Colleague Site Page.


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Chemical manufacturer moving headquarters to Louisiana
A chemical manufacturer is moving its headquarters from Houston to Lake Charles.
Gov. John Bel Edwards and Lotte Chemical USA announced Thursday its headquarters will be located with its $1.1 billion chemical plant under construction in the city.
The two facilities will create 130 new jobs with an average annual salary of more than $80,000 plus benefits, according to the governor's office. Fifty of the jobs are tied to the headquarters move. The plant is expected to start operations in 2019.
Lotte Chemical is a leading manufacturer of petrochemical products. The plant in Lake Charles will produce monoethylene glycol, an ingredient used in making paper, textile fibers, latex paints, asphalt, antifreeze and coolants.


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(Updates with analyst comment, details on merger closing)
By Ahmed Farhatha and Rod Nickel
July 27 (Reuters) - Canada’s Potash Corp of Saskatchewan reported bigger-than-expected revenue on Thursday as it sold more potash at higher prices compared with a year earlier, marking a slow recovery in the oversupplied market.
Potash prices have rebounded modestly since last year but remain low, under pressure from bloated global capacity and soft crop prices.
The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based fertilizer producer’s revenue rose 6.4 percent to $1.11 billion, beating the average estimate of $1.09 billion.
Potash Corp’s results were mostly in line with expectations, but the company’s second-half prospects may not be bolstered by improving potash market conditions, disappointing some investors, Citi analyst P.J. Juvekar said.
The company left unchanged its guidance for full-year profits of 45 cents to 65 cents per share.
U.S.-listed shares of the company rose 1.7 percent in pre-market trading to $18.
Potash demand this year has been robust, helped by low prices and brisk offshore sales by Canpotex Ltd, the export company owned by Potash, Agrium Inc and Mosaic Co . Canpotex signed supply contracts this month with Chinese buyers at a higher price.
Potash Corp, the world’s third-largest potash producer, forecast global demand of 62 million to 65 million tonnes this year, up from an earlier forecast of 61 million to 64 million tonnes.
It said potash sales jumped 11 percent to 2.4 million tonnes in the second quarter.
The average realized price for potash rose to $174 per tonne from $154 per tonne a year ago. The company is also whittling down its costs selling the crop nutrient, as it has ramped up production at its expanded lowest-cost mine at Rocanville, Saskatchewan.
Potash said it expects its merger with rival Agrium to close late in the third quarter. The deal, which still requires U.S. and Canadian regulatory approval among others, would combine Potash Corp’s fertilizer capacity, the world’s largest, with Agrium’s farm retail network, North America’s biggest.
The new company would be known as Nutrien.
Potash’s net earnings rose to $201 million, or 24 cents per share, from $121 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, it earned 16 cents per share, missing analysts’ average estimate by 2 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Weaker prices for nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers weighed on results. (Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bangalore and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and Paul Simao)


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A new antitrust lawsuit has been brought forth by the Department of Justice along with 16 state and district attorneys general against Apple, alleging that the company has illegally maintained a monopoly through a series of various moves.
Some of the points raised by the DOJ are very familiar to us as Android users, including Apple’s continued suppression of quality messaging between iPhone and Android devices. We’ve talked about this at length   . Other points include Apple’s disruption of apps/services that allow for easier switching to devices other than iPhone, as well as the incompatibility of third-party smartwatches.
The DOJ also cites the blocking of third-party developers from publishing digital wallets with tap-to-pay functionality for the iPhone.
So what’s to be done about it? Thanks to The Verge for pouring through the 88-page document, we understand that the feds want the court system to stop Apple from, “using its control of app distribution to undermine cross-platform technologies such as super apps and cloud streaming apps,” prevent the company from, “using private APIs to undermine cross platform technologies like messaging, smartwatches, and digital wallets,” and keep it from, “using the terms and conditions of its contracts with developers, accessory makers, consumers, or others to obtain, maintain, extend, or entrench a monopoly.”
In a statement made by Apple, the company says, “We believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will vigorously defend against it.” In its eyes, “It would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology.”
While I think Apple makes a fair point about big government coming in and regulating these things, a similar argument could be made for what Apple has done to its customers. I imagine iPhone users could almost feel trapped into using only what Apple provides and I think this lawsuit could help address the lack of freedom/choice that the platform has.
You can expect to hear more about this in the coming months/years.
// The Verge


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WASHINGTON (AP) -- On this Cyber Monday, when online retailers are expecting their biggest sales day of the year, there's a setback in court for Amazon.com.
The Supreme Court is refusing to consider a request from Amazon and from Overstock.com to consider throwing out New York state's taxes on internet purchases.
Generally, web retailers don't have to charge sales taxes in states where they lack a physical presence. But the New York law applies to companies that use affiliates that refer customers to the retailer's website and collect a commission.
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Top 10 insights on local marketing at LSA17
Wesley Young shares expert insights about location marketing and local search from the Local Search Association's 2017 Annual Conference.
At the Local Search Association annual conference a few weeks ago, search and marketing experts in the local space provided insights into trends and challenges the advertising, marketing and search industry faces today.
Here are 10 of the top takeaways shared at LSA17.
1. Location drives almost all consumer engagement, even for national brands
According to Rob Blatt at Momentfeed, 85 to 95 percent of consumer engagement for brands happens through location assets such as local listings and local pages. That would explain why 50 percent of brands are using location data to target customers.
A strong shift in marketing budgets toward location-based marketing is naturally following that trend. Data from the Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA) found that 25 percent of leading brands’ marketing budgets are spent on location-based marketing, and that number is projected to rise. Companies in the US increased use of location-based marketing by 5 percent from 2016 to 2017, while those in Canada increased use 6 percent and those in the UK 7 percent.
In terms of dollars, Neg Norton, president of LSA, shared that in 2016, $12.4 billion was spent on location-targeted ad spending, rising to $32.4 billion by 2021, equivalent to 45 percent of all mobile ad revenue.
With local often being synonymous with location in the marketplace, these numbers emphasize that local marketing and local presence are just as important as national campaigns. Last month, I observed factors that influence the appearance in search results on Google Maps, and notably, national brand reputation was not a ranking factor.
As consumers increasingly look locally for information, all businesses — whether traditional SMBs, franchises or local stores belonging to national brands — must recognize how location needs to be a core part of their marketing strategy.


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HEXAGON, London’s sole Lotus dealer, is supporting the British sports car manufacturer at the Salon QP Fine Watch Exhibition this weekend.
Lotus will be the only automotive brand at the event, which is held at the Saatchi Gallery until Sunday, November 14th, and will display two of its sports cars – the Evora 400 and Exige Club Racer.
Accompanying the Evora and Exige are a selection of pictures which give an insight into the assembly process involving every Lotus at the manufacturing facility in Hethel, Norfolk.
Jean-Marc Gales, chief executive officer for Group Lotus plc, said: ‘We are delighted to be an official partner to Salon QP this year and to showcase two of our hand-built sports cars to an audience appreciative of fine design.’
Paul Michaels, Hexagon chairman, added: ‘We are delighted to be supporting Lotus Cars at Salon QP. As London’s only Lotus dealer, we know that the range offers exquisite attention to detail, from the construction under the skin to the quality of the cabin. You can really tell that each car is built to order.
‘Salon QP truly celebrates craftsmanship and bespoke detailing – particularly from world-famous British watchmakers – and is a perfect fit for Lotus Cars.’
MORE: Plymouth car dealer faces protest from angry drivers
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