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The Apple iPad has been a success story in the enterprise, flooding executive suites, knowledge-worker cubicles, field sales reps' carry-on luggage, even the factory floor. Now the iPad is under siege, as Android and Microsoft Surface tablets march on its turf.
But the resilient iPad is doing a good job fending off rivals.
A big part of the reason is that the competition-most notably, Microsoft Surface RT, which has been available since October 2012-has failed to deliver on the hype, according to CTO Aaron Freimark at services firm Tekserve, which helps Fortune 1000 companies adopt Apple products.
"A lot of companies were waiting on Surface to come out, hoping Microsoft would make things a lot simpler," Freimark recalls. "When they saw it, [their reaction] was kind of meh. This gave a green light to iPad projects that had been put on hold. We have seen quite a bit of business since then."
The Surface Pro hit the market on February 9 with mixed reviews. While the Surface Pro has great potential as a business device, it's questionable whether or not the suspiciously quiet about sales of the Surface Pro. In comparison, Apple regularly touts blockbuster first-week sales of a new iPad release.
Together, this means it's unlikely that the Surface Pro or the Surface RT will take significant market share from the iPad, at least not anytime soon.
The bigger threat to the iPad comes from Android tablets, yet the iPad appears to be staving off Android in the enterprise.
Mobile device management company Good Technology surveyed its enterprise customers, which include half of the Fortune 100, and found a clear preference for iOS devices. Collectively, iPhones and iPads accounted for 77 percent of all activations in the fourth quarter 2012, while Android activations dropped 6.3 percent, compared to the same quarter in 2011, to 22.7 percent.
Specifically, iPads continue to lead tablet activations with 93.2 percent. Android tablet activations rose slightly to 6.8 percent over the course of 2012. According to the survey, the most popular Android tablets are the Samsung Galaxy Tab followed by the Motorola Droid Xyboard, Samsung Galaxy Note, Asus Transformer, Kindle Fire and Motorola Xoom.
Slideshow: 15 Ways iPad Goes to Work
The iPad's success in the enterprise is good news for CIOs, too.
Apple has been steadily and quietly making the iPad more enterprise friendly. The iPad, along with Apple's walled-garden approach, is considered to be more secure than Android tablets.
However, Apple can make improvements for greater enterprise adoption, particularly in the areas of Apple IDs, Apple Configurator and app purchasing, Freimark says.
"If you look at what's in iOS 5 and iOS 6, you always see improvements that are really only geared toward business," Freimark says, "but they can do more."
Tom Kaneshige covers Apple, BYOD and Consumerization of IT for CIO.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline, Facebook, Google + and LinkedIn. Email Tom at email@example.com
Read more about byod in CIO's BYOD Drilldown.


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Satya kicked off Build 2023 with a retrospective on the so-called Dream Machine pursuit. From contemplating the concept of computers to their ubiquitous presence in households, we have witnessed revolutions such as the Internet and the iPhone. In Satya's words, the launch of ChatGPT last November signifies our metaphorical shift from the bicycle to steam-powered machinery.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft Build 2023 placed AI at the forefront. Allow me to provide you with a brief overview of some key highlights from this year's developer conference.
1. ChatGPT gets Bing Integration
Since the public release of ChatGPT, it lacked a key component that would enable it to surface new information beyond the so-called cutoff date. The integration of Bing effectively addresses this challenge.
At Build 2023, Microsoft reaffirmed its Partnership with OpenAI. There was no doubt that Bing would eventually find its way to serving 100 million reported monthly users, but Microsoft highlighted the expansion at this week's developer conference. After the implementation, ChatGPT users will gain a powerful new capability to access fresh information from the web.
2. Bing Chat gets boosted with plug-ins
In its quest to enhance productivity, Microsoft is introducing plugins for Bing Chat. These plugins serve various purposes, such as a plugin that knows the type of houses you are looking for and can help you search by not showing you what doesn't fit your criteria, effectively streamlining the search process.
Developers now have access to a unified platform that allows them to create plugins compatible with ChatGPT, Bing, Dynamics 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Windows Copilot. With the introduction of plugin support in Bing, the search engine can seamlessly integrate with a diverse range of services.
Earlier, Wolfram | Alpha and OpenTable plugins were already announced for Bing. Microsoft has also revealed plans to add plugins for Expedia, Instacart, Kayak, Klarna, Redfin, TripAdvisor, and Zillow to Bing. Additionally, Bing Chat will soon feature plugins for Bandsintown, Bohita, Cloudflare, Coupert, Fareportal, FiscalNote, Golden, Lexi Shopper, Likewise, Notable, One Word Domains, PromptPerfect, Shopify, Skyscanner, Spotify, Spotnana, and Trip.com.
3. Windows 11 gets its own AI assistant
This one is actually huge. Microsoft is undoubtedly capitalizing on the AI revolution by integrating ChatGPT technology into many of its products. But Windows, being the largest canvas of them all, may just be the most important one by far.
Windows Copilot will help you use the computer in a whole new way, with examples ranging from simple tasks such as asking the Copilot to boost your productivity and allowing it to change your theme to dark and set the focus mode, all the way to dragging a legal Word document onto the Copilot and asking it to pull up plugins that understand the law of your state, so you can ask it to make certain changes to the document according to the law.
Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay stated that Windows has become the pioneer PC platform in offering centralized AI assistance for customers. He further emphasized the advantages of utilizing Bing Chat and a wide array of first and third-party plugins. This integrated approach enables users to concentrate on materializing their ideas, accomplishing intricate projects, and fostering collaboration, rather than expending energy on searching, launching, and working across numerous applications.
4. Windows 11 is getting cloud-powered OS backup and restore
To ease up the AI revolution, we have selected this highly welcomed new functionality as noteworthy. Smartphone owners have long enjoyed a similar functionality, where you could buy a new device and upon the first start, simply log in to your platform account and select "Restore my apps" from the cloud backup. And now Windows will be able to do the same.
5. Windows 11 on ARM devices gets a big boost
Last but not least, Microsoft is finally pushing ARM further ahead. The competition (notably Apple) has leapfrogged Microsoft in this race, but because Microsoft has no intention of dropping x86 support, they have been slow in adopting ARM architecture to make it a viable alternative for Windows users.
With Build 2023, this is moving ahead, and we can now expect Visual Studio with MAUI for ARM, Node 20 with native ARM support, and Unity Player becoming publicly available for ARM natively, expanding developer support for devices like the Surface Pro X.
Watch the full Microsoft Build 2023 keynote
Microsoft Build 2023 also had a ton of other announcements. Some notable additions included adding RGB lighting support into Windows 11, allowing gamers to bypass the litany of poor third-party tools. Microsoft is also giving developers a way to work with GitHub via the command line by harnessing the power of AI, alongside deeper integration between Windows and GitHub in general. We're getting a refreshed version of the Windows 11 filesystem to boost compiling speed, and even avatars in Microsoft Teams.
What was your favorite Microsoft Build 2023 announcement? Drop in the comments, let us know!
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domain: news


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Author: Paul Ploumis23 Apr 2014 Last updated at 08:30:28 GMT
NEW DELHI (Scrap Monster): According to latest government statistics, the country’s gems and jewellery exports declined sharply during the fiscal year FY ’14. The exports during FY ’14 totaled $39.5 billion during 2013-’14, nearly 9% lower when compared with the exports of $43.34 billion during the previous fiscal.
According to Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation- the representative body that promotes growth of trade in gems and jewellery, the sharp decline in exports was primarily due to flat demand from global markets and partly on account of tight norms of gold imports by the government which led to non-availability of gold for exports.
The exports of gems and jewellery from India had been declining since October last year. This was mainly due to various regulatory curbs on gold imports. The government had raised the customs duty on gold imports from 2% to 10% in an attempt to arrest the rising Current Account Deficit (CAD). The confusion surrounding 80:20 rule also resulted in reduced gold imports by the country. All these led to severe scarcity of gold in India.
The contraction in gold imports helped the country to contain the CAD to to $31.1 billion (2.3% of GDP) during the April-December FY14 period as compared to $69.8 billion (5.2% of GDP) reported in the same period of previous fiscal year. The final CAD data for the entire fiscal is due to be announced shortly.
The exports of gems and jewellery constituted 15% of the country’s total exports during the fiscal.


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Samsung Electronics this week announced the Galaxy S21 5G, S21+ 5G, and S21 Ultra 5G flagship mobile phones.
The Galaxy S21 5G will include a 6.2-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, while the Galaxy S21+ 5G will include a 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with 4800mAh battery.
Both will feature a Contour Cut Camera housing that includes a 12MP Wide-angle, 64MP Telephoto, and 30X Space Zoom lenses, front camera at 10MP with FOV 80°, 8K video functionality, 8GB RAM, Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, and Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor.
Battery size for the Galaxy S21 will total at 4000mAh and the Galaxy S21+ will yield a 4800mAh battery.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G will include a 6.8-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, quad rear camera module (12MP Ultra Wide, 108MP Wide-angle, 10MP Dual-tele lens), 40MP front camera, 4K/60FPS video across all lenses, 5000mAh battery, Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, S Pen functionality, and Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor.
The Galaxy S21 5G will be sold at $799.99, the S21+ 5G at $999.99, and the S21 Ultra 5G at $1,199.99 Jan. 27.


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Dallas County is the latest to use electric vehicles for law enforcement, having added three Tesla Model 3s to its police fleet.
Local, state, and federal governments around the world have begun adding battery-electric models to their municipal fleet, including the New York Police Department and police departments in Boulder, Spokane, and Fremont, California.
Interest in adding electric vehicles to a municipal fleet that collectively travels millions of miles a year but also sits idle for long periods of time could have a significant impact on emissions, infrastructure, and the relative success of electric vehicle manufacturers.
Electric vehicles can save on maintenance and fuel costs, although they still need access to charging stations and enough time to recharge their batteries.
But it’s a curious choice for Dallas, in a state where franchise laws prevent Tesla from selling directly to consumers at its company-owned stores. Instead, customers in Texas must buy their Tesla online and pick it up in another state. Employees of Tesla stores in Texas, where customers can come to see the model range, also cannot disclose financial information.
Dallas County Commissioners authorized the county to purchase three Tesla Model 3 Performances for a total of $190,320. The Police Department will store vehicles at its Automotive Service Center as backup units when other department vehicles are being serviced or repaired.
Lucid Group and the Saudi government, which owns a 61% stake in the company, announced on Tuesday that Kingdom to buy up to 100,000 Lucid vehicles for ten years to support his “Saudi Vision 2030” and the “Saudi Green Initiative” for sustainable transport.
This one of the largest electric vehicle purchase agreements includes the sale of 50,000 Lucid models, including the Air luxury sedan and the upcoming Gravity SUV, as well as the option to buy another 50,000 Lucid vehicles over the next 10 years.
Credit: techcrunch.com /


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Archos had representatives from Intel and Microsoft on stage, so Archos could not use this event to also show their fully in-house developed Archos Android product or line of products. Sadly. We will have to wait a bit more to see more of that. But Archos CEO Henri Crohas started his Keynote speaking about the Android line of products and giving us some details, basically saying that it's going to be awesome.
Archos explained a bit of how it is working now in terms of R&D and development work. Archos still has their core engineering team working on the Android device/devices to be unveiled on or before September the 15th at another event. All the while, Archos is able to release Intel and Microsoft based products and position themselves very well on the market, in partnership with engineers and manufacturers in China, in partnership with Intel and Microsoft as well.
You can hear more from the Archos CEO Henri Crohas about Android in the keynote that we broadcast live using ustream.tv at around the 15-25th minute: http://archosfans.com/2009/06/11/archos-event-video-recorded/
Here I filmed a highlight of Henri Crohas's talk about Android in upcoming Archos device/devices:
CrOvax and Ulrich from http://frandroid.com are Android fans at the Archos event in Paris, reporting about their reaction to the fact that Archos is not zet showing the Android device/devices publicly but only a bit talking about them at this point, and annoncing only officially about the Archos Android September event that will be coming up.
Review of the Archos 5 TV Snap-On accessory that let's you watch and record DVB-T (freeview) signals city-wide and country-wide for most European countries which already have good DVB-T coverage. It comes with a dual diversity antenna system that allows you to get the best reception for a mobile DVB-T receiver, it picks in real-time the best available signal while you walk around or move your device around when at the football match, at work, in school, on the bus, on the train, anywhere especially in densely populated areas which have good DVB-T coverage.
You can discuss this video at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=23754


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The biggest topic in the mobile industry over the last few years has been 5G. In an industry that has been starved for innovation in this interregnum between the launch of the iPhone and the full-scale integration of next-generation technologies like augmented reality, artificial intelligence and blockchain, the introduction of the 5G network has become a sort of catch-all for carriers and handset manufacturers to lean on as the promise of the future of innovation being just around the corner — a feature worth paying a premium for and upgrading that smartphone you bought just a year or two ago.
Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon has recently declared that 2020 would be the year 5G goes mainstream, predicting approximately 200 million 5G smartphones will ship next year. Amon also suggested that:
“5G [would] become broadly available across major metropolitan areas in 2020, then spread thoroughly throughout developing countries in 2021.”
While this year might be an important one for carriers and smartphone manufacturers to sell the latest model of the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, the more crucial year for 5G might be 2021 when those networks aim to roll out their products to the developing world. Read More...


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This story appears in the May 15, 2017 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe to Forbes Asia
For the mighty Samsung empire, things couldn't be worse ... or better. The venerable Lee Kun-Hee, the richest Korean by far, has been hospitalized for three years. His only son, Jay Y. Lee, 48, who had been running the group, is in jail facing bribery and embezzlement charges (he denies all wrongdoing). But led by its seemingly unstoppable flagship, Samsung Electronics, the group is riding high. With an estimated first-quarter operating profit of $8.7 billion, up 48% from a year earlier, Samsung Electronics shares have gained 60% over the past year. Last month Samsung introduced the Galaxy S8--an answer to the embarrassing failure of the fire-prone Note7 last year.
While a battery of lawyers fought to defend Jay Y. in a packed Seoul courtroom, Koh Dong-Jin, Samsung Electronics' president of mobile communications, heralded the wonders of the S8 before equally packed gatherings in New York and Seoul: "The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ ... are our testament to regaining your trust." He did not need to mention the fiasco of the Note7, but the message was clear.
Did it matter that the Korean media regularly showed Jay Y., the Samsung Electronics vice chairman, with his wrists bound in ropes like a common criminal? Were investors concerned that both father and son, their caricatures on signs held aloft during marches, were the target of demonstrators calling for reform of the chaebols?
In the confines of his cell, Lee (No. 3) can see his lawyers but otherwise is allowed only three ten-minute conversations a day with visitors through a grated window, all monitored by prison guards. The judge granted the prosecutor's request to keep him behind bars during the trial on the grounds that he might "destroy the evidence."
For Samsung the evidence that counts is the value of the group's 60 companies, which is roughly equivalent to 25% of South Korea's $1.4 trillion gross domestic product. During a tumultuous transition, that value is holding up quite well, even without the presence of the chairman and vice chairman.
Lee Kun-Hee, the Samsung Electronics chairman and head of the Samsung Group, suffered a heart attack in 2014 and remains on the top floor of Seoul's Samsung Medical Center. His condition is "stable," says an aide, but "he is not in a condition where he can participate in management." Samsung officials say they have no word on whether he is able to communicate or is conscious. There have been no photos of him made public since he was stricken. Treated for years for lung cancer, Lee had long since arranged to divide his empire among Jay Y. and daughters Boo-Jin (No. 17) and Seo-Hyun (No. 18).
Hong Ra-Hee, 72, Samsung's first lady, resigned in March as director of the Samsung Museum of Art, known as Leeum, and the Ho-Am Art Museum. Aides cite "personal reasons," considering that her husband is bedridden and her son in jail.
Hong is an arts graduate of Seoul National University, and both museums contain collections from her father-in-law, Samsung founder Lee Byung-Chull. Leeum comes from Lee's name and the last syllable of "museum"; Ho-Am, the patriarch's pen name, means "lake rock," for his breadth and strength. One of her brothers, Hong Seok-Hyun, published JoongAng Ilbo, a top daily newspaper, and now his son does. Another brother, Hong Seok-Joh, runs the country's biggest convenience-store chain and ranks No. 22.
Lee Boo-Jin appears to live a charmed life as the country's richest woman. She's president and chief executive of Hotel Shilla, one of Seoul's top lodging and conference centers, and a big shareholder in Samsung C&T, a holding company for the Samsung empire. But she's in the middle of a messy divorce from Im Woo-Jae, who revealed this year that he was her bodyguard when they met and not a Samsung office employee, as the company had claimed.
Nevertheless, after he was forced to go to school in the U.S., he was made vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics. They've been separated for five years and have a 10-year-old son. Im has asked for $1.04 billion in the divorce settlement but is expected to receive much less.
The future of Samsung Electronics seemed to hang in the balance when the company was forced last September to recall the Galaxy Note7, at the time the latest, highly touted Samsung smartphone, after the batteries in some of the phones exploded and caught fire. Attempts at correcting the problem failed, and Samsung stopped production the next month. By January, Samsung had figured out what was wrong: Batteries made by two suppliers were positioned incorrectly, short-circuiting the phones.
The disaster cost Samsung many billions of dollars before it moved on to the Galaxy S8, which went on sale last month. Samsung reports that "the initial response has been very strong."
For more coverage from South Korea's Richest 2017, see stories below:


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Bitcoin And Cryptocurrency News. ICO List And Blockchain Crowdsale Investments
2016 was regarded as the ‘coming of age’ of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies, with a big rise in the profile of Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. “We want to make sure that there will be clear guidelines for those who want to participate in this particular sector,” he told reporters at the Global Symposium on Development Financial Institutions (DFI) today, adding that the central bank is looking at the details of cryptocurrency.
As for the matter at hand, for all we know they may be looking into using cryptocurrencies as a possible way to pay for game time, but given that there may only be a small percentage of players who use them, they may not want to bother implementing it anytime soon.
Today, many people swap fiat for crypto on an exchange, but there may be more opportunities to get involved in providing a network resource through disk-sharing, bandwidth-sharing, or once the transition to a new validation protocol (proof-of-stake) takes place.
Unlike JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and billionaire hedge fund founder Ray Dalio , who have recently disparaged Bitcoin, the world’s most well known cryptocurrency, Lagarde shared a rosier vision of the general technology’s future with attendees of a Bank of England conference in London.
8 Gas is created for every Neo block (approximately every 15 seconds), meaning that if you hold 1,000 Neo (which essentially represent virtual shares in the Neo blockchain) in a wallet that supports Gas, then you will receive between 120 and 170 Gas in a year.
The digital economy isn’t a separate industry, it’s essentially the foundation for creating brand-new business models,” Putin said at the forum (Russian entities, like the state development bank VEB, have agreed to use Ethereum to help implement blockchain technology in the country).
The Future of Bitcoin conference has therefore been an ideal meeting point for enthusiasts and innovators from around the world – a place where people and teams working in the Bitcoin space has the chance to meet, exchange ideas, collaborate and compete.
In return, some of the miners that had abandoned the original Ethereum chain (ETC) to mine on the ETH hardfork have now begun mining on both which means that the original ETC network actually has once again begun seeing an increase in its hashrate (recall that it had dramatically dropped a week ago).
You never know when a piece of regulatory news out of China or a newly announced killer app could cause a huge price swing one way or the other, so it’s usually a good idea to throw your emotions out the window and simply purchase bitcoins on a regular basis.
You can’t fake the currency, because to create a bitcoin you need to break a difficult maths problem A new problem is set every 10 minutes, and the winner gets a brand new bitcoin as a ‘prize’ There’s no way to fake the answer – you’re either right or you’re not, so there’s no way to fake a bitcoin.


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Acting Chairman Buerkle and Staff Visiting Amazon
Jun 20, 2018
12:00 pm to 3:00 pm EDT
Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle and staff will meet with representatives from Amazon and will tour Amazon facilities in Seattle, WA. CPSC Staff attending the meeting includes: Nancy Lowery, Chief of Staff, DeWane Ray, Deputy Executive Director, Safety Operations, George Borlase, Assistant Executive Director, Hazard Identification and Reduction, Steve Hanway, Associate Executive Director for the Directorate of Epidemiology, and Carol Cave, Deputy Director, Office of Compliance. The visit will include discussions related to Amazon’s product safety...
Closed to the Public


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Duda Farm Fresh Foods has two new packages for the start of the Southern California meyer lemon crop.
Courtesy Duda Farm Fresh Foods
A new 2-pound clamshell is one of two new packaging for meyer lemons Duda Farm Fresh Foods launches this season.
The season kicked the first week of November, with Oviedo, Fla.-based Duda & Sons Inc.âs Duda Farm Fresh Foods division shipping meyer lemons in a new 2-pound clamshell and 1-pound high-graphic bag.
The bag is a self-display bag, so it sits on a flat bottom, and features a resealable closure at the top, said Paul Huckabay, sales manager for western citrus at Dudaâs Visalia, Calif., office. It uses technology from Smart Degradable Americas Ltd., a Calgary, Alberta-based sustainable packaging company formed by Rayton Produce Packaging Inc. and Fresh Technologies in 2009.
âThe back part of the bag is reserved for recipes and itâs just very high-end and it really helps us differentiate the meyer lemon from the regular lemon in the produce department,â Huckabay said. âMeyer lemons are a little more of a gourmet specialty lemon, but theyâre becoming more mainstream.â
The company uses the same graphics and recipes on a 2-pound clamshell.
âLast year we were doing more of a traditional-looking net header bag and we found that it caused some confusion with consumers,â Huckabay said. âThey looked at that bag and a regular bag and there really wasnât that much differentiation in packaging, so that pushed us to come up with a very different, high-end-looking design.â
Meyer lemons from the California desert, known in the citrus industry as district three, should be available through March, Huckabay said.


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Enterprise local weather drew CANPACK to Delaware County – WISH-TV | Indianapolis Information | Indiana Climate
MUNCIE, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) – The US regional manager of Poland-based CANPACK Group says the state’s business climate was a major factor in the company’s decision to build its newest aluminum can manufacturing facility in Muncie. The company announced Tuesday that it will initially invest $ 380 million to build the 862,000 square foot facility and create 345 jobs over the next two years. Tom Johnson says collaboration among city, county, and state officials, as well as location readiness also helped make the decision.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business host Gerry Dick, Johnson said the company was optimistic about the Indiana workforce.
“The Indiana commitment to making sure we have people available for the kind of work we need. I think we will offer a very competitive wage. I think our service package is also extremely competitive and I think we can really differentiate ourselves from our culture. Our culture is very customer and employee focused and we believe this is reflected in everything we do. “
CANPACK also says there is potential for further expansion, including an additional $ 110 million investment and 80 more jobs if needed. Johnson says they see unprecedented growth in the aluminum can market.
“Our competitors are expanding. We’re expanding, ”he said. “If we are in a position where some of our trading partners want to sign up for additional volume, we will do the enhancements to ensure we can support the market. That is what this is about – about entering a growth market in the USA and about supporting our partners with whom we have worked around the world. “
The aluminum can market has seen a massive surge in demand since the beginning of the pandemic, resulting in a shortage of aluminum cans that has caused companies of all kinds to adapt. Clay Robinson of Indianapolis-based Sun King Brewing Co. told Inside INdiana Business in March that the brewery had switched to other methods of reselling its canned beverages.
Johnson says the demand is unlike anything he’s seen before.
“In the US market alone, there are more than 10 billion cans in short supply. The US market imports cans from everywhere, and we’ve always been a self-sustaining market. So we look forward to adding capacity and going back, ”he said.
Construction of the Muncie plant is expected to begin this summer. Operations will begin in the fourth quarter of 2022.


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Lexus has officially unveiled the 2015 RC-F during the North American International Auto Show, which is taking place as we speak.
The BMW M4 fighter has made its public debut in Detroit recently, putting an end to rumors and leaked images. The Lexus RC-F has received an aggressive body kit, which is made out of the new front bumper, the ventilated front fenders, the bulging hood or the side skirts. If this isn’t too aggressive for you, than the model can also have a carbon fiber package, which is adding the carbon fiber roof or the active rear spoiler. Wheels include the 19-inch forged aluminum ones.
Power to the new Lexus RC-F will be provided by a 5.0 liter V8 engine. The total output produced by this unit stands at more than 450 HP (335 kW) and 518 Nm (383 lb-ft) of torque. The transmission is an 8-speed Sports Direct Shift, which will allow the model to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in less than 4.6 seconds, before reaching an estimated top speed of 270 km/h (168 mph). The new Lexus RC-F is also getting a Torque Vectoring Differential with three different modes, Standard, Slalom and Track, and a sport tuned suspension, amongst others. More details on the model will be announced soon.


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TTS Group changes name to Nekkar following MacGregor-deal
TTS Group has changed its name to Nekkar following the sale of the group’s marine and offshore business to MacGregor. The asset sale agreement includes the transfer of the right to use the brand name “TTS”.
TTS Group and MacGregor, which is part of Cargotec, closed the sale on July 31st July after a lengthy regulatory approval process in China that took nearly one and a half year.
As part of the agreement, MacGregor has purchased TTS Group’s marine and offshore division for an enterprise value of approximately EUR 87 million. With the acquisition, Cargotec will strengthen its marine portfolio with a wide range of cargo handling solutions including equipment for the multipurpose and heavy-lift shipping industry. TTS supplies equipment such as hatch covers, cranes, and dedicated side-loading systems and external doors and calls itself “the undisputed leader” in the heavy-lift marine cranes market.
Because the sale agreement includes the transfer of the right to use the brand name “TTS” to MacGregor, TTS Group has now rebranded itself as Nekkar. Under that name, the company will continue to sell its non-marine and offshore products, like Syncrolift, Intellilift and Nekkar Solutions services.
The company ticker at the Oslo Stock Exchange will be changed from “TTS” to “NKR” effective as of 2 August. The TTS Group website will also be abandoned. The company can be reached online at www.nekkar.com.


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With the release of the Apple Watch everyone’s number one concern has been about its protection – Is it waterproof? Is the glass crack resistant? Because lets face it, no one wants their expensive investment to go to waste.
An Italy-based company known as ActionProof has recently successfully funded their campaign on Indiegogo for the ambitious product "The Bumper." It is supposed to be the first shock absorbent bumper casing for the Apple Watch and will help keep it protected.
ActionProof claims that the bumber will give the watch “extra superpowers.” It is made from analergyc materials, is easy to put on and take off and provides unaltered audio functions.
The product is only being offered for the 42mm Apple Watch at the moment and not the 38mm version. It doesn’t interfere with any of the function and buttons on the Apple Watch and is not intrusive as well.
While as an early bird special the bumper was being offered at a price of $20 (with worldwide shipping), you can now buy it for $35. According to their website they should start shipping this June.


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All Star opens new dealerships in Livingston Parish
DENHAM SPRINGS – New All Star car dealerships are continuing the growth of the Juban area with the opening of Nissan and Kia sales centers near Juban Crossing this week.
The dealership celebrated its new home Tuesday afternoon and again Thursday.
Tuesday, All Star introduced its Nissan showroom. Then, Thursday, it introduced its Kia operation nearby.
In all, the All Star Automotive Group now has a total of four dealerships in Livingston Parish – others include All Star Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram and All Star Ford of Denham Springs.
All Star currently has 11 dealership locations, carries 14 manufacturer brands and has 5 collision centers.
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The Lawrence, Mass.-based medical device company said it pared its 4th-quarter losses by nearly 50%, to $2.4 million or 4¢ per share, on sales of $65.0 million for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, 2012. That amounts to top-line growth of 14.0% compared with Q4 2011.
For the full year, NxStage said losses were $14.6 million or 26¢ per share, down 32.2% compared with 2011.
The home hemodialysis company beat The Street’s consensus earnings forecast by a penny during both Q4 and 2012 and topped analysts’ sales prediction of $63.5 million. NXTM shares surged on the news, opening up $3.2% at $11.20 apiece, peaking at $11.68 (up 7.6%) before subsiding to $11.38 as of about 11:30 a.m. today, up 4.9%.
"As evidenced by our 2012 results, our business and market fundamentals remain strong and positive. We believe NxStage is uniquely positioned for growth as it continues to make a difference to people’s lives with significant innovations that are advancing the standard of renal care," founder and CEO Jeffrey Burbank said in prepared remarks. "Taken together with increasing confidence in our ability to drive continued growth with new direct to patient marketing programs, we believe the overall effect of our product execution is that we are better positioned to accelerate adoption of our therapies with much greater potential than in the past. With the benefit of these programs largely expected in 2014, we expect top line 2013 revenue to remain strong and grow at a rate similar with 2012, followed by accelerated success and over 15% annual revenue growth in 2014 and beyond, excluding any benefit of service revenue from NxStage owned centers of excellence."
NxStage said it expects to post revenues of between $60.5 million and $62.0 million during the 1st quarter, excluding the 1-time impact of its planned transition to direct sales in the U.K. That move is anticipated to cost between $500,000 and $1 million, NxStage said. Net losses are slated to be between $4.5 million and $5.5 million during Q1, or -8¢-9¢ per share.
Fiscal 2013 sales are pegged at $265 million to $270 million, with net losses of $13 million to $17 million (or -22¢-28¢) per share.


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The biomedical industry has been the fastest-growing sector of the Northeast Ohio economy in the 21st century, with the value of goods and services produced by businesses in the sector growing by 59%, and experts and observers believe it has more room to grow. The only thing holding back enthusiasm, however, is that so far the growth has come without any growth in biomedical jobs, according to the most recent report on the regional economy released Sunday, April 13, by Team Northeast Ohio, the regional business attraction nonprofit. If the region can grow employment in the biomedical sector, most likely by improving production processes for medical devices in ways that reduce the cost of manufacturing, at least one researcher believes that could create a new wave of high-paying manufacturing jobs for Northeast Ohio by keeping production work local. “The United States hasn't reaped the benefits it should because so much of the production (of medical devices) has moved offshore,” said Ross DeVol, chief research officer at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., where he focuses on job creation, health and access to capital access. “A real competitive advantage of Northeast Ohio is, given the expertise in refining production processes and improving efficiencies, if you can find a way to bring costs down (on making medical devices),you're talking about creating high-quality, middle-class jobs,” DeVol said. “Northeast Ohio has a real opportunity there.” Team NEO's quarterly economic review reports on basics such as job creation and unemployment, but this particular review highlights the biomedical industry and says that 700 biomedical companies in Northeast Ohio now employ 33,000 people — about the same number that were employed in the industry in 2000, when the region had only 300 biomedical companies. Jacob Duritsky, Team NEO's managing director of research, said that lack of job growth is a result of the increasing productivity in all areas of manufacturing, including the medical device sub-sector, which is a key part of the region's biomedical industry. That can change, though. Bo Carlsson, an economic professor at Case Western Reserve University, agrees with Team NEO's assessment of industry growth without jobs in recent years. But he, too, believes that job growth will come. He sees young medical device companies, which may not yet have regulatory approval for the sale of their new devices, getting that approval and hiring as they start production. “We may see a different picture going forward because there are so many new applications coming forward,” he said. “From the producer side, it means a great business opportunity; that's where Northeast Ohio comes in,” Carlsson continued.
The biomedical industry has two other sub-sectors: research and development and the pharmaceutical business. But the medical device sub-sector is biggest. “As a share of the total, medical device manufacturing, in terms of output, has grown the most out of those three elements of the biomedical industry,” Duritsky said. “That makes sense because a lot of the R&D work and lab work is spun out of the hospitals and med device manufacturing is benefiting a lot from that research.” Among the major firms in the biomedical sector are Elyria's Invacare Corp. and Philips Healthcare in Highland Heights, both of which make medical devices, and Steris Corp. of Mentor, which makes infection prevention systems. The Team NEO review estimates the biomedical sector of the gross regional product, or GRP, has grown from $3.5 billion in 2000 to $5.6 billion in 2014. GRP is a measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in an area in a particular year. Moody's economy.com provides Team NEO with the data for its quarterly reviews of the economy in 18 counties in Northeast Ohio. Importantly, the industry largely has avoided the ups and downs of other sectors of the regional economy. “This is a sustainable industry here that has grown the right way,” Duritsky said. “It hasn't been boom-bust. It's been really smart, thoughtful, incremental decisions that have grown it.”
2.1% growth forecast for 2014
More generally, the quarterly report pegs total employment in the region at 1.89 million at the end of the third quarter of 2013, the latest data available. That marked the 13th consecutive quarter of growth, though jobs increased by only 9,900 positions between the third quarter of 2012 and 2013. Given that modest growth, unemployment held steady, at 7.1%, only slightly lower than the national rate of 7.3%. Moody's expects the regional economy to grow by 2.1%, to almost $200 billion, in 2014. That gets the GRP to within about $2 billion of its pre-recession high of 2005. Moody's reports the regional economy grew only 0.4% in 2013, lagging the broader U.S. economy, but Duritsky considers that an early estimate that will be revised upward as data estimates become more solid. The report also notes employment growth in the service, manufacturing and construction sectors.


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Robots rivet the side frame assembly on the body of a Revero electric car at the Karma automotive factory in Moreno Valley. Karma is the first car-building company in Southern California in decades. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
June 29, 2016
Los Angeles has hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs since 2007, casting a pall over the state’s economic recovery, according to a forecast released Tuesday by Chapman University.


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While in Qingdao the other day, I went out for a sushi dinner with co-blogger Steve Dickinson and a long time Japanese fishing industry client who happened to be in Qingdao on business.
Steve had been to this same restaurant a few months earlier and raved about the food. The first few dishes were excellent, but the sushi platter contained tuna that looked and tasted old and awful. Steve informed our waiter of this he merely shrugged. That got the three of us talking about China food quality, and at that point, Steve (who can speak and read Japanese) and the client told me that the topic of the day in Japanese magazines is “poisoned food” coming in from China. They both said that many of these articles accuse the Chinese of deliberately poisoning food going to Japan. I failed to ask if this “deliberate” poisoning was being done to save money and increase profits, or to get at the Japanese. They both said Japan was making every effort to cease buying any food from China.
The AP is just out with a story saying food sales from China to Japan fell 30 percent in February and from Shandong Province the fall was an even steeper 60 percent. These figures are in comparison to February, 2007. Based on my dinnertime conversation, it would not surprise me if sales have fallen even further since February.
Will China’s food sales to Japan recover or will this plunge spread to Korea and beyond? In other words, is this just a Japanese thing? Does China’s increasing carelessness with food portend bad things in terms of Chinese product manufacturing and quality control?


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After five years of development, and real-world roll-outs with some of the largest digital kids platforms, Crisp has now officially launched its fully managed ‘Kids and Teens’ safety & moderation service. This service is set to transform the way Social Platforms deliver safe experiences for their younger users.
We’ve all logged in to our computers and seen automatic updates launch. Whilst it’s not always obvious what has been updated, we take a leap of faith that the programme is still safe to use and won’t put us, or our customers, at risk.
In July 2016, a 15-year-old girl received a seemingly innocent Facebook message from a 28-year-old man she didn’t know. That simple “Hey, how are you?” led to her spending the night at the man’s house only 13 days later. She was held against her will and after trying to escape, was killed.
Over the last couple of years there have been some huge PR crises for a number of major kids’ entertainment providers and social networks. Some of these PR disasters were so damaging that they led to the downfall of a number of businesses – businesses which up until that point had been highly successful. The main issue that led to their untimely demise was inadequate protection of their customers (or users whichever you prefer) from issues like cyber-bulling, trolling and sexual predators. Something as relatively harmless as SPAM also played its part in having a damaging affect on their essential advertising revenue due to lack of effective content moderation.
With all the recent press around Facebook’s moderation performance, deciding to open up your company’s Facebook wall for all to comment on can be a challenging decision. It is estimated that 25% of global companies have a closed wall on Facebook. But what is the effect of a closed wall on the perceptions of your social community and, importantly, what can be done to mitigate the risks of that open wall.
As the Daily Mail rightly reports the ‘fury as child abuse picture goes viral on Facebook with 16,000 ‘shares’ and 4,000 ‘likes”, we still see too little focus on strong moderation as a brand protection solution. Whilst it’s the most extreme forms of pornography which continue to make headlines, unregulated spam content of many kinds can be damaging to brands.
Both Burger King and Jeep’s Twitter accounts have been hacked this week, showing just how easy it is for an external threat to cause a serious risk to a brand’s social media reputation. In both instances similar content was added by the hackers, with negative references to company staff and the companies in question being sold to their nearest and dearest competitors. This emphasizes the importance for companies to have a proper brand protection strategy when it comes to managing their social media reputation.
Facebook’s latest feature release; Ranked comments, is in beta on brand pages. This change impacts the ordering of comments in response to a brand’s posts; comments are now ranked on popularity with the most engaging comments at the top of the list – a move that impacts brands and agencies moderating Facebook pages directly. Previously comments would simply appear in the order they were posted and this meant that some form of structure (although not ideal) could be applied to scanning the page. You would simply scroll back through comments until the last time it was checked. This was annoying on busy posts as it meant scrolling through lots of comments, but at least there was a structure of sorts.
‘Predator detection’ software is police’s high-tech weapon against paedophiles
LONDON, 2 May 2012 – Predator detection software saved the police hundreds of man hours by sifting through a dangerous paedophile’s 5,000 web chats and identifying his vulnerable young targets.
Web safety experts Crisp used its Kids & Teens program, which usually monitors live web chats, to quickly process six years’ worth of online grooming history police found on a 46-year-old sex offender’s computer and flag up the girls he had targeted.


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Sports Direct, the U.K.'s largest sporting goods retailer, raised its full-year profit forecast after a better-than-expected first quarter. Revenue increased 10% in the 13 weeks to July 26, to £375 million ($619 million), with group profit up 4.7% to £157 million ($260 million).
The company now expects to achieve underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of “at least” £150 million ($248 million) in the year to April 2010. That compared with a previous 2009-10 forecast of at least £140 million ($231.2 million), and the £137 million (226.1 million) made in 2008-09.
Sports Direct owns Sports World and Lillywhites stores as well as brands such as Slazenger, Lonsdale, Everlast and Dunlop.
Sports Direct said sales since the end of July had continued to be ahead of last year, adding it was on track to reduce net debt to below £400 million ($660.5 million) from £431 million ($711.6 million) reported at the end of its financial year in April.
Said Dave Forsey, CEO, in a full statement, “The Board is pleased with the progress made in the year to date. Group revenue for the 13 weeks ended 26 July 2009 increased 10% to £375m (2008: £336m) and the corresponding Group gross profit increased to £157m (2008: £150m). Since the end of July, trading has continued to be ahead of last year and we are very comfortable with our expectation of reducing net debt to below £400 million. The Board now expects, at current exchange rates, to achieve underlying EBITDA of at least £150 million this financial year.”
The company further noted that UK retail has opened five new stores including three Field &Trek stores, and closed 2 stores, one of which was a relocation. International retail opened a store in both Belgium and Slovenia and closed a smaller store in each of those countries.
On August 7, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) made a referral to the Competition Commission (CC) concerning the acquisition of certain retail stores from JJB. The company said , “We continue to co-operate fully with the enquiry and work with the CC on the matter.”


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This week we hear from Scott Omelianuk, Inc. Magazine’s Editor in Chief. He talks about how starting his new job just before lockdown affected Inc.’s plans for change, how their content strategy has shifted in response to a momentous year in politics, and the thinking behind their new texting subscription service. He also explains why media businesses need a process before trying new platforms.
In the news roundup the team discusses BuzzFeed buying HuffPost, Google’s payments to French publishers, and the whys and wherefores of launching a one-off print comic book for grown-ups. Don’t worry, America, Peter still loves you really.
Here are some highlights:
Opportunities from lockdown
It changed everything, really. First and foremost, we lost a big piece of revenue that would have been associated with events that we hold during the SXSW conference that obviously was cancelled. We came up with the idea to very quickly pivot to some streaming video events and did that successfully with some significant names. People like Mark Cuban and Daymond John, famous entrepreneurs.
So we suddenly had another business that has proven to have been really useful for us and a significant revenue generator. But of course that came out of the crisis, right? And the lesson there really is, don’t let a good crisis go to waste, in a way!
It’s an opportunity to experiment, because you don’t have a choice. You can continue to do what you did, and you’ll watch yourself decline. Or you can be nimble and try to find new ways.
Covering business during the election
There used to be a time when you could say, ‘Well, that’s business, we don’t have to talk about politics.’ But at a certain point, business and politics do intersect, and it’s hard to talk about one without the other.
Our audience is more conservative than I am, for example. And I understand that, and yet at the same time, I also understand things like, no matter who is in power, uncertainty is the enemy of moving forward economically. I think that’s something worth talking about. Outlining realities for people in terms of, this is a government with an active legislation toward supporting small business and helping it in a time of crisis is more useful than one that’s ignoring it.
And so I think we can and do look at it that way, what can the government be doing? Is there a coherence in policy? And if not, what needs to be there? And so that’s how we’ve discussed it.
Serving an audience across different mediums
Our role is to support small business and how we do that really will ultimately be dictated by our audience. So they will tell us at some point, perhaps, they don’t want a magazine anymore. And that will be okay, because we’ll serve them in another way.
One of the ways we’re serving them now is something called Subtext where a handful of our most read columnists or reporters are able to have a texting relationship with some of our audience.
It’s a subscription offer. You pay monthly or by the year, but you have a more intimate and more two way communication with our columnists, our reporters, and our editors. And I think that’s something that’s really valuable for our audience.
Inc.’s longer-term plans for their texting service
I know that a Subtext subscription costs more than a magazine subscription. It does not have the associated manufacturing and distribution costs with it. So the economic model is quite different. I could end up with a much smaller audience, but a much more passionate audience, or one that I can charge more for, because they’re that passionate. And that might be okay.
So no, I don’t expect Subtext to replace any of our current businesses. I see it right now as an addition, as an add-on, as a way to get closer to the brand for our audience, and a way to have better communication, and understand their needs better, and then be able to respond more interestingly in our other platforms to their needs.
To me, it’s a really interesting two way opportunity now. Ultimately, is there a revenue opportunity there? I hope so. And if there is, that’s great.
- BuzzFeed has agreed to buy progressive news website HuffPost from Verizon Media in an all-stock deal
- ‘Shrinkage seems inevitable’ in BuzzFeed and HuffPost deal
- Jonah Peretti comes out swinging in response to accusations he has the ‘wrong’ business model
News in brief:
- Apple has given into pressure around its 30% app store tax, and has now announced a reduction to its commission rate as part of a new program for small businesses. Any developers who earn less than $1 million in annual sales a year for all their apps qualify for a reduced App Store cut of 15%. For publishers who qualify, this should boost take-home revenue for a new subscriber by around 20%.
- Google has signed a copyright agreement with six French publishers including Le Monde and Le Figaro, following a year-long row over revamped EU copyright rules. The agreements are based on criteria such as the publisher’s ‘contribution to political and general information’, the amount they publish each day, and how their content is used on Google’s platform. This isn’t actually a snippet tax resolution though – it involves the Google News Showcase where Google will pay publishers around the world to license their content.
- Kids comic The Beano is publishing its first ever version aimed at grown-ups. The one-off edition, called BeanOLD, will feature stories of Captain Tom Moore, Marcus Rashford, Greta Thunberg, and of course Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings.
- Marie Claire have launched a VIP scheme which is basically a premium loyalty programme. Members can join for free, and receive points from other online retailers when they shop via the Marie Claire VIP site. They can then exchange these points for online vouchers to spend at VIP partner retailers.
- Vox is losing its (other) co-founder and editor-in-chief. Ezra Klein and Lauren Williams are both leaving. Klein is heading to the NYT to write a column, in addition to launching other endeavours. Williams is launching a new nonprofit startup called ‘Capital B’, focused on creating a news outlet for civic journalism tailored to Black communities.
- It turns out those labels Facebook have been putting on Trump’s posts have done little to slow the spread. “We have evidence that applying these informs to posts decreases their reshares by 8%” said a data scientist. “However, given that Trump has SO many shares on any given post, that decrease is not going to change shares by orders of magnitude.”
- Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey have been back in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Content moderation dominated the questions asked, with Republican senators focused on how both platforms could employ less moderation.
- Twitter has launched its own version of Stories this week called Fleets; tweets that disappear after 24 hours. It looks like there are some initial kinks to be ironed out, including the fact that anyone can reply to them in your DMs.
Our daily newsletter The Media Roundup brings you the four most important industry stories for media and publishing professionals. Subscribe here:


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Shoppers enjoyed cheapest grocery shop for a year in December as supermarkets battled it out
The festive season may be well and truly over, but shoppers can take comfort in the fact that grocery prices were at their lowest for a year last month, findings suggest.
A basket of 35 popular groceries cost £85.91 in December, 5 per cent or £4.33 less than in December 2014, mySupermarket.co.uk said.
In total, the falling cost of groceries could mean families save £225 a year on their weekly shop, the data suggests. While this may not seem a lot, the figures indicate that Britain's supermarkets remain locked in a price war aimed at boosting their market share and ensuring shoppers spend with them.
Falling costs: A basket of 35 popular groceries cost £85.91 in December, 5 per cent or £4.33 less than in December 2014, mySupermarket.co.uk said
Last month, the price of mushrooms fell by 18 per cent, while the cost of onions and pasta dropped by 7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, mySupermarket said.
But, other popular items including yoghurt, sausages and toilet paper increased by at least 3 per cent, the research adds.
Kim Ludlow, mySupermarket managing director, said: 'It is great to see the cost of grocery staples come down further in price and shoppers across the UK will be delighted that they can make real savings this January.
'The fall is part of a wider trend that we have observed here at mySupermarket, and is partly due to the intense competition between supermarkets with discounters such as Aldi and Lidl increasing their market share over recent months.'
In November last year, data from Kantar Worldpanel revealed that discounters Aldi and Lidl saw their slice of the market increase by 16.5 per cent and 19 per cent respectively in 12 months.
Last week, Aldi revealed to the Mail on Sunday that it plans to open 80 branches this year – 23 per cent more than last year and its fastest ever rate of growth in the UK.
Staples: Last month, the price of mushrooms fell by 18 per cent, while the cost of onions and pasta dropped by 7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, mySupermarket said
Despite the best interests of its discounting rivals, Tesco remains Britain's biggest supermarket by a considerable margin, enjoying a 27.9 per cent market share. Sainsbury's has 16.6 per cent and Asda 16.4 per cent.
Towards the end of last year, Sainsbury's suffered falling sales amid a fierce supermarket price war, causing half-year profits to fall to their lowest level in six years.
Sainsbury's spent £150million cutting prices on products, funded in part by shaving a penny off its interim dividend.
Earlier today, it was revealed that Sainsbury's made a bid approach for Home Retail Group, which owns Argos and Homebase. The bid was rejected, with Sainsbury's saying it is currently considering its position, adding that there can be no certainty that it will make a formal offer for the business.
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Earlier this week, the company controlling some of Germany’s grandest department stores revealed it was insolvent.
The KaDeWe Group, which manages the KaDeWe department store in Berlin, the Alsterhaus in Hamburg and the Oberpollinger in Munich, blamed exceedingly high rents and the financial collapse of one of its two co-owners, Signa Holding of Austria, for its financial woes.
Various suppliers — including Germany’s VKE Cosmetics Association, whose members include the L’Oréal Group, Estée Lauder and LVMH Perfumes and Cosmetics — say KaDeWe has been slow paying some big bills lately. The VKE sent a letter to the store management at what is arguably one of the country’s most prestigious retailers but received no reply, German news agencies reported this week after the insolvency announcement.
There’s more to the insolvency than that, too, with speculation about a breakdown in the relationship between Signa, which owns 49.9 percent of the company, and Thailand’s Central Group, which holds the other 50.1 percent stake.
But this isn’t the only bad news coming out of Germany’s fashion sector. Over the past few months there has been what the locals have branded an “Insolvenzwelle” or “wave of insolvencies.”
This wave has been headline-making because it has included some of the biggest names in German fashion retailing and production, including Peek and Cloppenburg, Gerry Weber, Reno, Ahlers, Peter Hahn, Madeleine, Hallhuber, Salamander, Klingel and Görtz. Smaller brands that recently declared themselves insolvent included Lala Berlin and bag maker Bree, while other members of the ill-fated Signa family — one of the biggest department store chains in Europe, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, and Signa Sports United — also did so.
Insolvencies among apparel sector companies that generate more than 10 million euros annually have tripled since 2022, German management consultancy FalkenSteg noted this month. In 2022, there were just 11 such insolvencies but last year there were 33.
And, FalkenSteg researchers added, “across all [fashion] company sizes, the numbers [of insolvencies] rose sharply for the first time since 2020, to 160 cases.” That’s 57 percent more than in 2022, they said.
All this is happening at the same time as Germany’s economy is slowing and consumer sentiment is increasingly depressed. German national income — gross domestic product — shrank by 0.3 percent in 2023. It was the only European economy not to grow last year, and this year isn’t expected to be much better.
German consumers are also unhappy. “Both economic and income expectations as well as the willingness to buy are showing noticeable declines,” the country’s largest market research company, GfK, concluded at the end of January. German shoppers are worried about inflation, much less willing to spend and want to save more right now, GfK said.
They’re also less willing to spend on fashion, the German Retail Federation reported last summer, and prefer to save or spend on things like holidays.
It sounds bad. But is Germany’s fashion retail sector — the second biggest in Europe after the United Kingdom, worth around 70 billion euros annually — really doomed?
The short answer, as a number experts told WWD, is no.
“Simply put, it’s all a bit of an exaggeration,” said Jochen Strähle, a professor of fashion management at the Texoversum course run by Reutlingen University in southwestern Germany. “The textile and apparel trade has always been subject to change but it’s not going anywhere. What is happening at the moment is something of a turning point for the sector.”
“What we are seeing is the consolidation we have been expecting for several years,” confirmed Achim Berg, an expert for apparel, fashion and luxury with management consultancy McKinsey and Company, who is based in the central Germany city of Frankfurt. “That was something we expected to see when COVID-19 happened but it didn’t because of the subsidies and support the German government provided to retail in general, but also to apparel.”
Taken as a whole, fashion retail in Germany isn’t in trouble, sector observers agree, it’s just changing — and in a way that should probably have happened a while ago.
The country’s Federal Statistical Office recently reported the latest numbers available: Fashion sales actually grew by 9.3 percent in the first half of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.
Local specialist publication TextilWirtschaft put the insolvencies into further perspective. Out of around an estimated 17,000 companies in Germany that sell or produce clothing, shoes and accessories, 160 insolvencies in 2023 meant that just under 1 percent of the total were in trouble.
Additionally, some of the current wave of insolvencies are not what you would call a genuine bankruptcy, said Leo Faltmann, director of FashionConsult, a business based near the city of Munster in western Germany, which specializes in strategy and restructuring for the apparel industry.
In Germany there are two kinds of insolvencies, Faltmann explained. One sees the court appoint an administrator, who then controls the company’s assets, dispensing of them in order to pay back creditors. The other is “a self-administrated insolvency,” which is similar to an insolvency filed under Chapter 11 of the U.S’ own bankruptcy code. Just as with a Chapter 11 filing, in Germany the troubled company’s management retains control of assets and is able to restructure and renegotiate things like rental contracts, with the objective of returning to some sort of financial equilibrium.
According to TextilWirtschaft’s research, around a third of the redundancies in 2023 were self-administrated insolvencies. “If you look closely at some of the bigger insolvencies, they have chosen self-administrated insolvency,” Faltmann added. “So in some ways, the idea that there is some spectacular wave of insolvencies has been exaggerated.”
Analysts say there are a number of reasons behind the recent insolvencies. Some are beyond the control of local fashion retailers and producers. These include rising energy costs as a result of the war in Ukraine, which has led to mild inflation and a slight recession. This in turn translates to higher costs in everything from raw materials to wages. Rents have also continued to rise, with almost half of German retailers recently telling pollsters they felt particularly disadvantaged by these increases.
Additionally, political and social unrest — war in Ukraine and the Middle East, environmental challenges and dissatisfaction with the current German government — is weighing heavily on German consumer sentiment.
But there are also other reasons for the insolvencies which have more to do with long-running structural weaknesses and unsustainable strategies in the sector.
During the pandemic, the government brought in extra financial support and also suspended rules that said local companies must file for bankruptcy within a certain period after they realize there’s a problem, FashionConsult’s Faltmann told WWD.
“The companies that were not profitable before were, in principle, being supported by the state during the pandemic,” he said. Local insolvency reporting rules returned to normal in May 2021 and state support as part of the government’s Economic Stabilization Fund ended in June 2022. Tightening credit conditions and higher interest rates also made it harder for businesses in dire straits to refinance themselves after state support dried up.
Business models that had been challenged by issues like the rise of online shopping and the decrease in brick-and-mortar footfall, but had not done enough about them, are the ones fighting for survival.
“So we have all these insolvencies piling up,” Faltmann added. “But really it is structural change to the sector that is badly needed.”
For example, Germany has far too much inner-city shopping real estate, Faltmann said. Although the number of consumers going to brick-and-mortar stores plummeted during COVID-19 lockdowns, customer footfall in inner cities had been falling long before that, statistics show.
There were already a lot of empty storefronts in Germany’s smaller towns and cities. The pandemic saw even more of them and the trend becomes a vicious circle because, as observers say, the more of a concrete wasteland inner cities become, the fewer people want to go there.
The Signa Group’s many financial problems don’t help either. The Austrian real estate firm was responsible for the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof chain of around 90 department stores — the chain has declared insolvency three times since 2020, received state bailouts of more than 700 million euros and previously had more than 170 stores. Anybody who’s ever visited smaller German towns and cities knows these are often a focal point in central shopping districts. Now they’re at risk. Some already stand empty.
So while the pandemic may have accelerated the trend for fewer shoppers in town, it didn’t create it.
After all, the share of online apparel sales in Germany has been growing for years and German online giant Zalando has benefited from this. Around 40 percent of all sales of fashion and accessories are now made online in Germany.
Asked whether Germany’s apparel sector has perhaps fallen behind other European nations or is more conservative in some way, Reutlingen University’s Strähle doesn’t think so. “Germany is the largest clothing market on the European continent, with some tough barriers to entry, which makes local producers and retailers more cautious about questioning their business models,” he suggested. “If you want to try something different, it’s a big deal and a lot of money. So people are less likely to experiment.”
McKinsey’s Berg also pointed to how the sector as a whole has developed over the past 10 to 15 years. “If you look at the top line development of the industry over that period, it’s all flat at best, with 1 to 2 percent growth or decline most of the time,” he told WWD. “So the industry as such is not growing. This means if you want to be successful in this market and you want to grow, you need to grow at the expense of somebody else.”
In particular there is pressure on mid-price apparel, Berg noted, with categories like premium and affordable luxury eating into that market from the top, then value and discount clothing pushing into it from the bottom. Many of the big-name German insolvencies are from the midmarket category.
In other words, Berg argued, the German market is very competitive. “And I think the reality we have now is not coming by surprise. Apparently some players have not taken care of their homework when it was due.”
At the same time, this will open up opportunities in Germany, Berg argued. “There are always pockets of growth,” he concluded. “If you look at the last five years, you see how sports was one of those pockets, casualization was another, so were sneakers. So there is always something in fashion. And if you have that consolidation in German apparel, and there are some not very competitive formats and players that are exiting, that also creates opportunities for other players to gain market share or compete in that segment.”


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Profoto is preparing to file a patent infringement lawsuit against Chinese lighting company Godox in order to stop the Godox V1 from hitting the market, according to Swedish photo publication Fotosidan.
The complaint targets the recently announced Godox V1, which Profoto alleges is in violation of multiple patents it filed for its own A1 light. The Profoto A1 round head flash was launched in September 2017, a year before Godox introduced their V1 flash at Photokina 2018.
Profoto A1 costs $995 USD. Pricing for the Godox V1 hasn’t been announced, but it’s expected to be be priced significantly cheaper. Godox V1 appears to feature a number of similarities with the A1, including the round head design, Fresnel lens, magnetic modifier mount and LED modeling light.
Profoto CEO Anders Hedebark, told Fotosidan, that his company spoke with Godox about its V1 flash at Photokina 2018, and has continued to reach out to Godox in the months since. Profoto has filed seven patents related to its A1, which was in development for four years.
‘We spend a lot of time and money on development and will protect our investments,’ Hedebark said, also warning that manufacturers and other companies may face lawsuits if they market the Godox V1. ‘It feels like we have an obligation to act.’


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An online agent which advertised expensively on prime time TV slots as well as on the London Underground appears to have shut up shop.
This is according to an online blog, Selling Up, which specifically looks at the online agency sector.
Its blog alleges that the online agent could have spent hundreds of thousands in promotion while barely increasing its listings.
Homeseller, run by Anthony Quirk – a cousin of eMoov founder Russell Quirk – advertised in slots on The X Factor, costing it many thousands at a time.
The advert featured well known actress Sarah Parish, whose credits include Cutting It, W1A and Broadchurch.
However, the Selling Up site suggests that Homeseller’s spend may have been wasted money.
It says: “A retrospective look at the company’s property listings history reveals that at the time of the first TV ad they had around 16 properties for sale, and weeks later in November 2015 that had risen to just 25 listings. By December 2015 that had gone up to 36 and by the following April they had around 50 listings.
“Compared to the several thousand properties on the books of the big online estate agents that they were trying to emulate, the number of listings were clearly very low. The cost per acquisition of each new property for sale must have been in the many thousands of pounds during this campaign.”
Yesterday, the Homeseller site looked closed, simply featuring a logo but nothing else.
The Rightmove link suggested that the advertiser might be no more, with our search saying “We’re sorry, something has gone wrong with this page”.
While it is clear that Anthony Quirk runs a number of highly successful businesses, including a high street agency on Canvey Island, Essex, he did not respond to our emails yesterday requesting information. We will of course carry his response as soon as we get it.
Here is how we covered the ambitious launch of Homeseller: http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/watch-out-theres-another-quirk-about/
The link below shows what Selling Up thinks – plus those apparent TV adverts.
Russell Quirk yesterday said that he knew nothing about Homeseller, but did say that the costs of launching a successful online agency now look to be astronomical.
He said that at a very recent meeting in the City, Purplebricks founder Michael Bruce said it would now cost £100m to get such a venture up and running –compared with the £50m Purplebricks had raised.


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"The people of Ghana have suffered extensively from the crisis," the groups, which all have operations in Ghana, said in an open letter. "Wealthy private lenders must share in the costs of a crisis they helped to create and cancel the debt."
Ghana is expected to miss a $41 million interest payment due on a $1 billion eurobond on Wednesday. The finance ministry said in December that interest payments have risen to between 70% and 100% of government revenue.
Ghana's consumer inflation rose to 54.1% year-on-year in December, driven by rising fuel, utilities and food costs. International reserves have dwindled to less than two months of import cover.


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EA Sports have announced a new Madden 22 Edition titled “NFL Pro Bowl Edition”, which will likely include bonus in-game Pro-Bowl related content.
The release date is only days away, set for February 5, 2022. We will update this post as more Pro Bowl Edition info is made available.
Check out the promo trailer below!
Just when you thought we couldn’t go any bigger…#Madden22 | 2.5.22 | #ProBowl pic.twitter.com/HBzMiyf5KE
— Madden NFL 22 (@EAMaddenNFL) January 30, 2022


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Go to any management and board planning meeting these days, and you will seldom find a topic that gets more attention and discussion than increasing fee income.
Banks have done a good job maintaining overall fee income. Since the beginning of 2001, while net margin has reduced by .19 percent, banks increased fees on deposit accounts from .35 percent of assets to .36 percent, and this in the face of the free checking onslaught. The 800-pound gorilla of fee income during this period, of course, was mortgage banking. However, now that every last homeowner has a 4.5 percent fixed rate mortgage, most banks are factoring in 30-40 percent reductions of mortgage banking volume and income.
While banks look for the next big source of non-interest revenue, market forces are at work in the ever-burgeoning area of electronic banking and payment systems, and the impact on banks will be significant. Here’s a fast Gonzo tour of three areas that banks will need to keep close tabs on.
Signature debit… PIN-based debit…. stored value cards… pre-paid debit cards… credit cards. Ask a dozen prognosticators what will happen to volumes for each of these, and you’ll get at least two dozen answers.
There is no doubt that debit transactions are on the fastest growth path. PIN and signature debits combined accounted for 18 billion transactions in 2003, and recent reports from both The Tower Group and Financial Insights estimate that number will increase to roughly 38 billion in 2007. The significant difference in the two reports was in the estimate of transaction mix. Tower predicts equal PIN and signature transactions. Financial Insights, however, estimates that close to 70 percent would be PIN-based. Now, given the lower fees charged for PIN debit, there is a significant amount of money riding on which estimate is right.
Now, let me apply some simplistic Gonzo logic to this question. Here we go:
Um, is this hard to figure out? Markets are rational, so it seems that unless merchants and consumers suddenly turn stupid or start imbibing too much of the funny Kool-Aid, real-time PIN debit makes way too much sense not to prevail.
The impact on this entire issue on bank fee income could very much be a good-news, bad-news scenario. The good news is that by every estimate being published, the increase of debit usage will more than offset fee compression. The bad news is increased PIN debit usage in lieu of writing checks could reduce NSF fee income significantly. Indeed, a recent study by Celent Communications predicted that PIN debit revenue to banks would increase $3 billion by 2007, but that NSF fees due to migration to debit would decline $3.212 billion, netting a loss of $212 million. (Can I hear anybody say “overdraft debit privilege”?)
What is the mandate for banks? First, don’t plan that irrational or punitive price increases will solve the movement to lesser debit income rates. They won’t. Merchants and consumers have feet, lawyers, and a proven willingness to use both.
Second, push usage, usage, usage. If banks can control nothing else, they can control how much usage offsets margin compression.
Cash-back debit and consumer reluctance to pay increased fees have combined to take a toll on ATM volumes. The number of ATMs deployed in the United States increased from 273,000 in 2000 to 471,000 in 2004. At the same time, the average number of transactions per ATM declined from 3,900 to 2,400.
Particularly hit in this decline are off-site ATMs, where the average transactions per month have declined to 1,500. The net effect of this has been a fairly significant consolidation of off-site ATMs to larger operators.
Credit Card Management recently reported that the average ATM switch fee paid by users was $1.70 in combined issuer/acquirer charges. There is no reason to think that the downward trend in usage will change, and less reason to think that markets will allow fees to increase.
The mandate for banks? Be prepared to move fast to remove or relocate unprofitable off-site units, or make sure that they are strategically located to serve internal customers and build loyalty.
And as for the “added value” fee-based transactions ATMs were going to produce? The rich history includes such ideas as tickets (um, failure), stamps (crash), cross-sales (huh?), and bus passes (zzzzzzz). Here’s a free suggestion: ATMs have a lot of room inside. How about having them double as coke machines? I mean, aren’t people always thirsty?
A lot of people in mid-size and community banks will be toasting Bank of America for its movement to free bill payment. Without B of A, we’d all still be sweating and trying to come up with some sort of ROI for the service. Now, everybody can just point out that B of A made the need to be free a no-brainer.
Most of the steam has gone out of the fee-based, Internet banking concept, anyway. Synergistics recently conducted a survey in which 80 percent of respondents said they would not pay for online banking services, and of those who said they might pay a fee, most limited it to a modest set-up charge.
Usage by most accounts grows steadily. Most banks are approaching 35-40 percent Internet banking usage (25-30 percent active) among checking customers, with bill payment approaching 10 percent.
The direct biller option is still trumping bank and other consolidator options, with most estimates showing a 60/40 split in favor of direct biller, proof again that if something gets there first and it’s simple, people will gravitate to it.
Not surprisingly, studies (including one recently completed by Boston Consulting) show that the average customer who is an active Internet banking/bill pay user is twice as profitable and twice as loyal as one who is not. Of course, there are two ways to interpret this data. One is that the most profitable customers were the first to use these services. The second is that getting people to use online banking products makes them more profitable.
It probably doesn’t matter which of these is true, because the mandate is clear: get the 20 percent of your customers who represent the most profit to the bank locked into both services. Make it a top priority for both personal bankers and branch managers and measure progress regularly.
There is a common theme in all three areas. The marketplace will put constant pressure on fees, and fee compression is inevitable. Banks probably can’t do much to change this. What banks can control is increased usage, particularly among high-end customers, that cement relationships. And guess what? That’s the other topic that gets the most attention at the planning meeting we mentioned earlier. How ‘bout that for irony?


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UK retail giant Tesco is in exclusive talks to merge with China Resources Enterprise (CRE). The move is aimed at reshaping its international business structure and form a "leading multi-format retailer in China".
The joint-venture could combine 131 Tesco stories in China and about 3,000 CRE outlets. CRE will hold 80% of the stakes and the proposed deal is expected to create a business with sales of some £10bn ($15.5bn, €11.6bn).
"The intended partnership would bring together the Company's deep understanding of local customers, established nationwide infrastructure and proven track record as a partner with Tesco's global retail expertise, international sourcing scale and supply chain capabilities," CRE said in a statement.
However, neither party has made any guarantee of the merger.
Britain's biggest retailer was trading 0.64% higher at 1.44 pm BST in London.
In a stock market statement, Tesco said the partnership is "consistent with Tesco's stated strategy of focusing on profitable routes to growth in fast-growing but less mature markets, with a disciplined approach to the allocation of capital".
Tesco opened its first store in China in 2004. In 2011, Tesco, the second largest retailer, announced plans to expand business presence in the world's second largest economy.
The Chinese market has been a particular target for retailers in recent times, with the world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, reportedly planning a bid for Hong Kong supermarket unit ParknShop. Wal-Mart said they were planning to expand business interests in Asian emerging markets.
In April this year, Tesco posted a bigger-than-expected fall in full year profits - a first in 20 years.
Earlier this month, it was reported Tesco axed 50 senior executives from head offices. The move came as chief executive Philip Clarke begins plans to revive business for UK's largest retailer.
Tesco has also announced plans to exit loss-making business in the US, where it operates under the Fresh & Easy brand.


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Cave Story+ released just a couple months ago for the Nintendo Switch, and it seems Nicalis has something else up its sleeve for the game, or its characters, at least. Yesterday, the company tweeted a GIF of an animated 3D model of Cave Story’s protagonist, Quote. You can check it out below.
Hey that’s a new trick! pic.twitter.com/upXKxhPikr
— Nicalis, Inc. (@nicalis) August 14, 2017
What this animated model could mean is anyone’s guess, but many are speculating that it’s a hint that Quote could be appearing in the Nintendo Switch version of Brawlout, which features indie game characters.
Brawlout is available for PC and is set to release later this year for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.


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The retailer, which began life as a mail order sales business in the 1970s, has grown over the years to include an online retail platform and national portfolio of 23 stores, most of which are situated in city centre or shopping centre locations, plus several dedicated Christmas pop-ups.
Hawkins Bazaar is operated alongside wholesale businesses within the Tobar group, the store portfolio, pop-ups and online platform have now been brought to the market as Tobar looks to withdraw from direct retailing to focus on the wholesale sector.
David Mordecai, CEO of Tobar International, said: “Hawkin’s Bazaar is a very strong retail brand with tremendous heritage both on the high street and online. There is a great opportunity to take the business to the next level through development of the omni-channel approach.”
A price for suitors looking to acquire Hawkin’s Bazaar is not yet clear, but the retailer recorded an annual turnover of £15.28m in 2018.


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Is it time the hammer came down on lower prices?
Written by: Derren Martin
- As predicted, prices continue to decline
- Volumes in the market remain high
- However, convertibles are the exception, values increasing again after a small blip last month
As predicted by the team at CAP Automotive, the month of May has thus far seen prices under continued pressure, mainly due to the sheer numbers that are appearing in the market, a result of the larger number of car registrations over the last 3-years – these new cars inevitably turn into used ones.
The actual number of units sold “trade-to-trade” year-to-date are up by close to 10% on 2014, illustrating that both supply and demand are strong. This is not the full story however – conversion rates sit at around 60%, meaning that a number of cars do remain “unsold”.
These unsold cars are tending to be older, poorer condition, often higher mileage cars. In times of heavy supply, the good quality cars sell first, the less desirable ones, those that often require refurbishment, struggle. These cars will continue to appear in the market until a buyer is found however, and inevitably buyers will only be hooked by reduced prices. Vendors will increasingly have to accept less than they may have hoped for in order to move these cars on, and ensuring that they price cars to the recently revised CAP Average and Below, rather than Clean, values is particularly important.
Whilst values are generally continuing in a downward direction, it has to be said that the dips are on the whole not overly dramatic. Demand for used cars from consumers remains healthy, and again as predicted, the recent General Election did not dampen this desire.
Bucking the downward trend, and recovering after a small downward movement in April, are convertibles. Whilst the window of opportunity, certainly in the wholesale market, will be closing shortly, most convertibles have been in demand over the last few weeks. As a result, prices have been increasing and this is reflected in Black Book Live so far this month.
In summary, used car values are dropping but that is nothing unusual for this time of year, particularly off the back of 38 months of car registration growth generating high numbers of used cars.
For up-to-date pricing movements in the market, use Black Book Live, where changes are reported on a daily basis.


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Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, sells over $1.6 Million in Coinbase shares. The sale of assets took place shortly after another wave of layoffs at Coinbase.
One of the few businesses to publicly state that they were unaffected by the consequences as the ongoing FTX controversy shattered expectations of the ongoing crypto winter coming to an end was Coinbase. Although the exchange’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, assured customers that Coinbase would not experience a similar fate, things don’t appear to be looking well for the platform either.
According to Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas, the company just fired off another 60 people as a direct result of the present scenario, following an 18% drop in the size of its personnel earlier this year. She also hinted that this may not be the final wave of layoffs.
“If we see that there is going to be further decreased revenue, and if we believe this is going to impact beyond the scenarios we have already planned for, we will have to take further cost-saving action.”
In an effort to reduce expenses and maintain operations without interruption in the face of challenging market conditions, numerous cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase, have slashed staff. However, given the price at which the company’s CEO sold the assets, it’s possible that Coinbase’s financial situation is worsening.
Assets Sold For a Sixth of Their Yearly High
Brian Armstrong just sold 29,732 shares for a total profit of $1,625,151.12. 13 trades using Coinbase stock (COIN) totaled 13 transactions at an average price per share of $54.66. The sale of a smaller quantity of 300 shares, each worth $46.70, resulted in the lowest price. Although the prices above are by no means low, they pale in comparison to what Coinbase stock was worth earlier this year.
One Coinbase share was valued at $348.49 at its peak price in 2022, more than six times the current average price throughout the selloff. At COIN’s height, the deal would have been valued more than $10.36 million. Even if we solely consider more recent statistics, the situation is not significantly better.
In the end, the selloff may also be a sign that investors are becoming more interested in Coinbase, especially given how effectively they have so far weathered the crypto winter. However, because the bear market appears to be here to stay for the time being, cryptocurrency platforms will need to keep things tight in order to survive.


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A new Employer Grant funded as part of Budget 2022 will see annual payments of €2,000 to Irish employers per apprenticeship per year.
The grant will be available for apprenticeships that are not eligible for payment of “off the job” training allowances.
Its introduction means that, for the first time, employers of all apprentices will now have access to financial support, either through direct payment of allowances to apprentices or through the new employer grant.
“You can be an apprentice in your local retail centre or restaurant, an up-and-coming small or medium-sized firm, or the multinational company around the corner”
Effective from January 2022, this annual base grant will be paid to employers who employ apprentices in one of the 37 apprenticeships which have been established since 2016.
The grant will be paid for each eligible registered apprentice during their employment with the company. Two payment points are planned per year: June and December.
A win-win for business and learners
“This will help address the cost of employing apprentices and encourage employers to consider apprenticeship as something that is excellent for business and excellent for the learner,” said Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris, TD.
“We have over 62 apprenticeship programmes from engineering to accounting, hairdressing, biopharma. You can be an apprentice in your local retail centre or restaurant, an up- and- coming small or medium sized firm, or the multinational company around the corner.
Minister Harris also announced the appointment of Dr Mary-Liz Trant as the Director of the National Apprenticeship Office.
“We have made excellent progress on the deliverables set out in the Action Plan and 2022 will bring new and exciting opportunities including the further development and launch of programmes such as advanced cybersecurity practitioner, wind turbine technician, manufacturing data integration engineer, advanced quantity surveyor, software solutions architect, and transport operations and commercial driving,” Minister Harris said.