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Internet of things News
Cloudflare's New Orbit Solution For Device Manufacturers Secures Internet Of Things Devices
Security company Cloudflare has launched a new system for securing Internet of Things devices – aimed for the device manufacturers themselves.
Orbit provides a new approach to security so IoT manufacturers can configure their devices to connect with the internet through Cloudflare's network – so if there is a vulnerability, manufacturers can easily patch it without having to "brick" or shutdown the device.
’The PC-era model of on-device security didn’t work very well for PCs and definitely won’t scale to protect the Internet of Things,’ Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said. "Orbit… can scale to meet the needs of an increasingly networked world."
[Related: Platte River Networks CEO Faces Possible Criminal Prosecution After Clinton Email Server Controversy]
According to Cloudflare, its new solution uses its firewall in the cloud to catch exploit attempts like Distributed Denial of Service attacks – protecting devices that are running vulnerable code.
Orbit also authenticates devices to trace whether they actually belong to a user's network and are not a malicious hacker trying to infiltrate the IoT infrastructure.
Prince said that the Orbit system is currently protecting more than 120 million IoT devices for early-adopter device manufacturer customers. Lockitron is one such company working with the company to better secure its products.
’Keeping our products and customers secure is our primary concern,’ said Paul Gerhardt, co-founder of Lockitron, in a statment. ’Cloudflare provides an extra layer of security that allows us to keep our devices continually updated and ahead of any vulnerabilities.’
IoT security has been in the spotlight since a major denial of service attack was launched in October through Internet of Things consumer devices, including webcams, routers and video recorders, to overwhelm servers at Dynamic Network Services (Dyn). That led to the blockage of more than 1,200 websites.
The attack on Dyn, which connects users to websites such as Twitter and Netflix, came from tens of millions of addresses on devices infected with malicious software codes, knocking out access by flooding websites with junk data.
"[Orbit] is a great and clever solution for IoT device manufacturers, and is certain to gain adoption," said Marc Harrison, president of Silicon East, a Marlboro, N.J.-based solution provider specializing in IoT building automation security.


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Reebok teams up with Fitness O2
Dubai, August 24, 2009
Reebok Middle East has teamed up with Fitness O2 - a leading sports services company in the UAE, to provide a new dimension to fitness regime in the region.
Specialising in Boot Camps and personal trainings, ranging from Renegade Boot Camp suitable for any participant, to Booty Boot Camp targeting women, Fitness O2 offers Young Guns Boot Camp programmes for kids of all age.
“At Reebok we believe in incorporating creativity and innovation in all aspects of our business - designs, features, colours to creating or associating with a new evolving fitness regime. Boot Camps are gaining traction in the region and we want to be part of it,” stated Mark Greiner, sales and marketing manager, R B K Middle East.
“We are extremely glad that global brands like Reebok are taking keen interest in fitness related programs that not only are in sync with the brands' global alignment but also create the right exposure for brands among its key audience,” added Zena Habi, founding member and managing partner of Fitness O2.
As part of the tie-up, Reebok will provide Fitness O2 with training kits and a range of sports equipment products. Fitness O2 trainers will use and wear Reebok products during the training sessions.-TradeArabia News Service

domain: news


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Chameleon Power, the world’s leading provider of visualization software and technology, is getting ready to release of a new iPad app that promises to be the roofing industry’s most accurate visualizers.
The app, soon to be available to download on iTunes, works seamlessly with next generation iPad touch screen technology.
“The app is designed to work well with the latest iPad’s speed and pinch and zoom capabilities,” says Bill Westrick, vice president of Research & Development, Chameleon Power.
“Roofing professionals can use the app to upload photos of their customers’ homes. Then, with the touch of the screen, they can easily use their fingertips to map points and add precise dimensions and perspectives to show their customers a newly designed roof, instantly.”
The new app is one of a number of innovations Chameleon Power has launched within the last several months. In late 2012, Chameleon Power developed Vision QR, a retail sales solution that allows sales staff and/or customers to scan product samples such as paint chips or upholstery and see them visualized in beautiful room scenes instantly on their mobile devices or in-store kiosks.
Chameleon Power also was the first to perfect visualization technology for Apple and Android mobile products. Additionally, the company also created a next generation application that provides a truer visualization for windows and other transparent surfaces.
Chameleon Power’s ImageMapper™, the original upload a photo of your own home tool, is perhaps the company’s most notable accomplishment achieving 2.1 million photo uploads and growing since 2006.
“The new roofing iPad app is the next chapter in true visualization accuracy ImageMapper has been providing over the last seven years,” says Dan Dempsey, president and CEO, Chameleon Power.
“Chameleon is eager to see how roofers will come to use the iPad app and is always looking forward to developing new visualization technology covering every part of the home exterior and interior.”


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Europe-wide agreement will see distributor offer resellers partners Lookout’s cloud-based security portfolio
Tech Data Mobile has partnered with security software provider Lookout as part of a pan-European distribution deal.
The agreement will see TDM offer licenses for Lookout’s cloud-based Premium product to its reseller partners as an additional revenue opportunity.
Lookout’s applications offer security across Android and iOS devices and includes automatic protection from viruses, malware and spyware, lost and stolen phone remediation, privacy controls, and backup.
“Your phone is the center of your life, and keeping it safe is one of the first precautions that individuals take,” said Lookout EMEA VP Gert-Jan Schenk.
“Through this partnership, we’re able to tap into Tech Data’s comprehensive European distribution network to expand the reach of Lookout’s consumer solution, while providing real value across these resellers.”
Figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport released last week revealed two thirds of large UK businesses have been hit by a cyber attack within the last year. Around 70 per cent of these attacks involved viruses, malware or spyware.
“The issue of protecting ourselves from the threat of cyberattacks- whether as individuals or in the enterprise – has never been more relevant, as viruses and malware become ever more sophisticated and numerous.” said Tech data Mobile senior vice president Stephen Nolan.
“We are really looking forward to building Lookout’s trusted and powerful protection into the integrated mobility solutions that we offer to our partners in the channel across Europe.”


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Saturday, 27 November 2021, 10:38:57 am
All taxes on POL products withdrawn: Tarin
He said decrease in petroleum taxes will directly benefit the people
Govt taking all possible measures to supply Urea to farmers: Khusro
Khusro Bakhtyar lauded the fertilizer manufacturers for blacklisting the hoarders to smoothen the supply chain of urea in the country
Tarin reaffirms govt's full support to investors, business community
He was talking to a delegation of Citibank Pakistan led by its President and Country Director for Pakistan Ahmed Bozai in Islamabad
PM to inaugurate FBR's Track, Trace System for sugar sector
Under the system, no production bag of sugar will be taken out from the factory and manufacturing plant without stamp and individual identity mark.
Govt focused to enhance investment in export industry:PM
Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the meeting.
SBP rejects news for interpreting inflation forecast of 7.9% for current FY
State Bank of Pakistan says inflation forecast represents projections for current financial year.
Indonesia expresses keen interest to invest in diverse sectors in Pakistan
Ambassador of Indonesia to Pakistan Adam Mulawarman Tugio said Pakistan's location will make the port of Gwadar an important factor in global economic and trade integration
View More News


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A high-end, but non-luxury hotel is slated for a vacant lot across the street from the new Richards Group building in Uptown.
Neal Sleeper, president of developer Cityplace Co., said the planned 150-room hotel, the first new addition to the Uptown hotel landscape in years, would aim to attract overnight guests looking for a “more affordable” option than the luxury hotels that populate Uptown.
“I think there are people who would like to stay in the Uptown area but may go outside of Uptown because there are not more affordable options,” he said. “The Ritz, the ZaZa, the Crescent, I don’t think any would fall into the category of what you think of as affordable. Those are more luxury.”
Researchers such as STR, formerly Smith Travel Research, classify hotels according to attributes such as cost per night and amenities.
The 218-room Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, which opened in 2007; and the 191-room Rosewood Crescent Hotel, fall into the “luxury” category, where the price per night can easily top $300, according to STR. The 167-room Hotel ZaZa, which opened in 2002, also is considered a luxury property and also can charge more than $300 a night.
The new hotel would be on Cityplace West, between Noble and Oak Grove, and would have at least two restaurants adjacent, Sleeper said. The lot now holds construction trailers.
He said his company is in talks with a hotel brand, but he could not announce the name of the hotel yet.
At least two other hotels have been discussed for the Uptown area.
McKinney Hotel Developers LLC has filed plans with the City of Dallas for a 128-room hotel that would be constructed on a vacant lot on McKinney Avenue near Bowen Street.
The hotel, the first Dream Hotel in North Texas, is expected to open in the first quarter of 2016, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. No date has been announced for the start of construction.
Florida-based Parmenter Realty Partners, the owners of Dallas’ Cityplace tower on North Central Expressway at Haskell Avenue, are moving ahead with plans to build a mixed-use project surrounding the high-rise, our Steve Brown reported recently.
Parmenter said its new construction could include a hotel with up to 305 rooms, 37,000 square feet of retail space and up to 490 apartment units.


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Kylie Jenner baby Stormi is set to have made millions by the time she turns one [Instagram]
Kylie Jenner’s newborn daughter, Stormi Webster, could be set to make millions by the time she turns one.
The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star’s little one may only be two weeks old, but according to a top consultant, she is set to follow in her mother’s footsteps and pull in shed loads of cash, even before her first birthday.
Eric Schiffer, Chairman of Reputation … …read more
Source:: Ok – Celebrity news


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In 2021, China recorded the strongest growth in the EV market with around 3.2 million EVs sold. This was an increase of 2 million EV units compared to 2020 which was more than the combined increase of all other regions taken together.
Electrification of light-duty vehicles is trending in many parts of the world and is on track to become a consumer driven phenomenon but let’s not forget the heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks and buses.
As electric vehicles (EVs) trend from being niche to mass scale and the lines between EVs and their combustion engine (ICE) counterparts get blurred in terms of usability, consumers, automakers, governments and fire departments continue to have some apprehensions.
If you’re like me and predictive text has led to some awkward if not amusing moments, you might be sceptical about Artificial Intelligence (AI). But its achievements are already overwhelming and changing, even protecting, our lives in many sectors.
Food safety starts with rigorous hygiene, and nickel-containing stainless steels are the superior, reliable standard at every link of the food chain.
Nickel’s role in enabling technologies is not always common knowledge. Yet its versatile properties present great opportunity for the nickel industry.


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Seemingly every month brings shoppers face-to-face with the prospect of paying greater than ever for a brand new car. The month-to-month new automobile fee not way back was just a little greater than $550 a month, now the typical used automobile fee is greater than that.
Recently, in accordance with Cox Automotive, the typical month-to-month fee for a brand new car surpassed $700. However, with the Federal Reserve’s price hike June 15, financing a brand new automobile, truck or SUV for that additionally close to document worth exceeding $47,000 on common simply turned costlier.
No statistic displays that higher than the truth that 12.7% of recent car consumers who financed their buy at the moment are paying greater than $1,000 a month for that new car. By comparability, the typical lease fee within the U.S. proper now’s $1,326 a month whereas the typical mortgage fee is $2,064 on 30-year mounted mortgage.
Why a lot?
Some people are paying almost as a lot for what they drive as the place they dwell. Part of that is because of rising costs which have persistently set new highs month after month for the previous 18 months. But additionally, people are financing bigger quantities to get these automobiles.
The common quantity financed for brand new automobiles hit a near-record degree within the second quarter of 2022, climbing to $40,602 — in comparison with $39,726 in Q1 2022 and $36,215 in Q2 2021, in accordance with analysts at on-line buying information Edmunds.
The analysts notice that the primary and solely different time that the typical quantity financed for brand new automobiles surpassed $40,000 was This fall 2021, when the typical annual share price (APR) was simply 4.1 %. Now the typical APR is 5%, a big bounce and bump in month-to-month fee.
Four-digit month-to-month notice
The bounce is probably going, in some circumstances, for these month-to-month automobile funds trying extra like lease funds. The variety of shoppers sporting a $1K month-to-month new car fee has skyrocketed, accounting for simply 7.3% of consumers in June 2021, 4.6% in June 2019 and a mere 2.1% in 2010, Edmunds famous.
“Low interest rates used to be one of few reprieves for car shoppers amid elevated prices and supply shortages. But the Fed rate hikes this year are making finance incentives far costlier for automakers, and consumers are starting to feel the pinch,” stated Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ govt director of insights.
“Although there appears to be a steady stream of affluent consumers willing to commit to car payments that look more like mortgage payments, for most consumers the new car market is growing increasingly out of reach.”
Other market drivers
Another cause for the leap within the common worth and fee is the rise of electrical car gross sales. Yes, they’re good for the planet and enjoyable to drive, however that comes at a price — a literal one. The common mainstream car prices about $43,000 whereas the typical EV exceeds $61,000.
In current months, a number of auto executives, together with CEOs, have been sounding the alarm about the truth that EVs are driving up costs and until one thing modifications, all the promise EVs will probably be misplaced as a result of nobody can afford them.
Stellantis CMO Arnaud Deboeuf was the most recent govt to ring the bell, warning of an entire “collapse” if BEVs are priced out of attain of the standard motorist. Last December, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda sounded a equally apocalyptic notice in his position because the chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, or JAMA. Ford CEO Jim Farley and Deboeuf’s boss, CEO Carlos Tavares, issued comparable messages just lately.
But Stellantis CMO Debouef’s warning comes at a time when the trade is dealing with extreme shortages of key EV elements, equivalent to semiconductor chips, which have begun driving up prices. And even when shoppers settle for the necessity to swap from fuel and diesel to electrical automobiles, “the market will collapse” if the trade can’t carry costs beneath management, he warned. “It’s a big challenge,” he stated, in accordance with Bloomberg information.


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Showcasing Of Digital Marketing – Lahore Exhibition 2016
MiniBig Technology is participating from today “18th August, 2016” which is going to last till “20th August, 2016” in Lahore Expo Center. The event organized by PEGASUS which has been launched by Plasti&Pack. It has brought together, the biggest national and multinational plastic packaging organizations together on a single platform. MiniBig Technologies, a digital media service organization, is showing its complete range of digital media services in exhibition. It is presenting the feasibility through which it can introduce plastic and packaging organizations in digital world; make them involved on internet and digital media; and how it is going to market and promote these companies worldwide.


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CBA has been crowned the top bank brand in the country, pinching back the title it relinquished to ANZ over the past two years.
The Brand Finance Banking 500 is a league table of the world’s biggest banks based on their respective brand values. In good news for most of the nation’s banking institutions, the vast majority of Aussie bank brands are growing rapidly with their combined values up 14 per cent year on year. According to the survey, the nation’s banks are now ranked ninth globally in terms of brand value.
The big winner this year was The Commonwealth Bank which usurped ANZ for top spot amongst the local players. CBA’s brand value rose 37 per cent over the past 12 months and is now said to be worth $A9.2 billion. CBA also had its brand rating upgraded to AAA-, which made it both the most valuable brand and the strongest too. CBA may be the top brand in the country, however, internationally it ranked in 29th position.
Of the Aussie banks, ANZ’s brand polled second (38th internationally) and was worth $8.1 billion. Westpac was third (45th internationally) and was worth $6.9 billion. While NAB was last of the ‘big four’ (49th internationally) and its brand is said to be worth $6.2 billion.
The two biggest local improvers on this year’s list was St George Bank, which moved into the top 100 for the first time. While CBA subsidiary, the New Zealand-centric ASB Bank, jumped 38 spots to be the ninth most valuable banking brand in the country (244th internationally).
Brand Finance Australia Managing Director, Mark Crowe, said of the results: “Overall the Australian banks have performed exceptionally well and achieved outstanding results. Increased brand strength will enable the banks to remain very competitive through building loyalty and minimising customer churn.”
According to the Brand Finance Banking 500 the American institution Wells Fargo remains the world’s number banking brand. The survey estimated its brand value at just shy of $US35 billion. An increase of 15 per cent from 2014.
The SingularityU Australia Executive Program will take place this may, celebrating leadership at the intersection of the values of humanity and the value of technology. The Elon Musks, Apples and Xeros of the world are taking risks for humanity and creating new technologies that streamline and beautify business operations. They simplify life by providing basic […]
Brisbane media professional and former OMD Australia Account Director Taylor Fielding (pictured) has officially launched TFM Digital. TFM Digital is a specialist media agency based in Newstead which primarily provides media buying services, and strategy development, to businesses chiefly, but not exclusively, within the franchise sector. Prior to the launch of TFM Digital, Fielding spent […]
Judging by the hangovers in the B&T office today you can count yourself damn lucky we even managed this photo thingy.
Launch marketing specialists Five by Five Global have been appointed by FutureFeed to develop their brand, international certification trademark and go to market strategy. The innovative livestock feed ingredient developed by CSIRO, Meat and Livestock Australian and James Cook University uses a specific genus of seaweed, Asparagopsis, which significantly reduces methane emissions in ruminant livestock. […]
Andrew Knowles, partner and co-founder of the corporate communications consultancy Shoebridge Knowles Media Group (SKMG), has won the PR category in the 2021 B&T 30 Under 30 Awards. Knowles received the award at a ceremony in Sydney last night, claiming victory in a highly competitive field that included leading executives from some of Australia’s biggest […]
The AFL is delighted to welcome Therabody as its Official Recovery Partner of the 2021 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Therabody’s industry-leading devices and research will be integrated into pre-match training and post-match recovery routines to help prevent injuries and help improve overall athletic performance. Therabody will also become the naming partner for the end-of-season AFL […]


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In June, a group of researchers discovered security vulnerability in iOS that would allow an iOS device to be hacked using a malicious USB charger. The three computer scientists, who alerted Apple regarding the issue, demonstrated the flaw at the Black Hat Convention in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
As the Cupertino-Based company received the alarming message, the company hurried to fix the already-mentioned problem in the latest iOS 7 beta 4 released a couple of days earlier.
The security problem allows hackers to manage and install various malware on non-jailbroken iPhones and iPads. However, Apple’s devices are still vulnerable to attacks until the company releases its iOS 7 software update, which is scheduled for this fall.
In a demonstration at the hacking conference, the hackers plugged an iPhone into a custom-built charger, which was equipped with a small Linux computer that was programmed to attack iOS devices. Apparently, the small computer costs only $45 to buy and a week to built and program.
The device infects the iPhone with a computer virus meant to dial the phone of one of the researchers, which it did. According to scientists, hackers and cyber criminals might build dangerous viruses that would allow them to gain remote control of the devices. This will allow them to take screen shots for stealing banking passwords and credit card numbers.
Billy Lau, one of the research scientists that demonstrated the flaw, said that they revealed the problem in “white hat” spirit, in order to provide manufacturers the possibility to fix any further security problems before cyber criminals exploit them.
In the same time, Lau added that Google’s Android devices are not vulnerable to the same types of attacks because they warn users if they plug devices into a computer, even one that seems to be an ordinary charger.
Along with Apple’s iOS 7 software update, iOS users will be notified if they are connecting their devices to a computer and not to an ordinary charger. In this way, multiple hacker attacks will be successfully prevented.
Apple’s spokesman Tom Neumayr said that Apple has fixed the issue in the latest beta of iOS 7, which has already been released to software developers. “We would like to thank the researchers for their valuable input,” stated Neumayr.


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NY NOW show opens, revealing this year’s holiday beauty shopping trends to watch
By Deanna Utroske
The semi-annual trade show, once known as the New York International Gift Fair, opened this weekend and runs through Wednesday, August 23. Exhibitors showing personal care, cosmetics, and fragrance, provide an early look at which product trends will be in every boutique this season.
Blend it yourself beauty made an appearance at the show. Mixify Polish, a brand that sells DIY kits to make personalized nail and lip colors was also showing its newly launched DIY fragrance kit.


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Investors appeared to think Wal-Mart's move spells trouble for GameStop, sending its shares down 3.7 percent to $38.30, while Wal-Mart shares rose 14 cents to $74.82.
But analysts suggest the new program isn't necessarily a death knell for GameStop. After all, other retailers have tried to take business in the used game market with "modest" success, said Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian, but GameStop has loyalty among video game customers and a broad inventory of new and used video games.
"History suggests the competition is unlikely to capture meaningful share," he wrote in a client note.
The trade-in business is appealing for a retailer: When a consumer buys a new video game for $60, only a small portion of its sale price goes to the company. But when a consumer turns around and sells that game back to the company, the company can keep all the profits for itself.
But it's also a complex business that requires systems to track and manage used product inventory and pricing and the ability to refurbish products and restock stores appropriately to balance supply and demand. In fact, Wal-Mart tried a video trade-in program from 2009 to 2010 using kiosks in stores, but that was not a success. The company said it has found a better system that will make the process more efficient.
Still, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said GameStop has advantages that Wal-Mart does not: a large refurbishment facility in Dallas, pricing algorithms and experience developed over a decade.
"It makes sense and feels natural that various retailers that offer new video games would try to offer trade-ins as well," Bhatia said. "However, as many retailers have discovered in the past, buying product from merchants in bulk is quite different than buying one disc at a time from customers."


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Equitas Small Finance Bank ₹518 crore IPO opens for subscription — Here’s what brokerages have to say
Equitas Small Finance Bank
- The ₹518 crore IPO of Equitas Small Finance Bank will remain open for subscription until October 22.
- The public offering from the SFB comprises a fresh issue of shares worth ₹280 crore, and an offer for sale of 7.2 crore equity shares by the promoter.
- Analysts are optimistic on long-term fundamentals but remain cautious given near-term headwinds.
AdvertisementThe mass-market focused Equitas Small Finance Bank (ESFB) ₹518 crore IPO opened today (October 20). The company has set the price band for the IPO at ₹32-33 per share.
The ₹518 crore IPO will remain open for subscription until October 22, and the shares are likely to list on both the stock exchanges— BSE and NSE on November 2.
Here’s what analysts have to say about the IPO
The public offering from the SFB comprises a fresh issue of shares worth ₹280 crore, and an offer for sale of 7.2 crore equity shares by the promoter. This is the third attempt by Equitas SFB, which was originally supposed to come out with an IPO in 2019. Due to technical difficulties, it was deferred to March 2020. It got held earlier this year due to weak market sentiment and has now opened at a much lower issue size.
Most analysts have recommended a ‘Subscribe’ for the IPO.
|Brokerage on Equitas SFB IPO||Recommendation|
|Axis Capital||Not rated|
Here’s all you need to know about Equitas Small Finance Bank IPO
What works: Stronger track record than its peers
The company has a track record of successfully diversifying its loan portfolio and significantly reducing their dependence on the microfinance business as compared to other microfinance companies that have converted to SFBs.
According to Axis Capital as of March 31, ESFB had the largest network of banking outlets among all SFBs in India and as of June 30, their distribution channels comprised 856 banking outlets and 322 ATMs across 17 states and union territories in India. The company is the largest SFB in India in terms of the number of banking outlets, and the second largest in terms of Assets under Management (“AUM”).
What works: Sector deemed to grow
As per Crisil, the SFB industry is expected to grow advances at a compound annual growth rate of 25% in fiscal year 19-22E to touch ₹1.4 lakh crore. And, Equitas Small Finance Bank will be among the most beneficial companies as its deposits grew at 39% CAGR in FY18-20 to ₹10788 crore. “A deep understanding of the market enables it to cater to customers leading to 39.1% CAGR in AUM in FY18-20 to ₹15367 crore,” the ICICI Direct report quoted.
AdvertisementThe concerns: Risk of non-performing asset
According to ICICI Direct, for Equitas Small Finance Bank, new products and entry in new geography pose a risk of non-performing assets. Currently, the company has a 55% concentration of loan portfolio in Tamil Nadu and nearly 13% in Maharashtra.
Although the sector is deemed to grow, what remains challenging is the nature of the business. According to Angel Broking, the fresh formation of bad loans from moratorium books would keep provisions high and return ratios compressed, and could pose a concern for Equitas SFB.
“We believe investors should wait for price discovery before making any investment decision,” they added.
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CurrencyFair, a Dublin, Ireland-based P2P currency exchange, raised an additional €8m in venture capital funding.
The round was led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Proxy Ventures.
The company, which has raised apporx. €20m to date, intends to use the funds to expand operations.
Led by CEO Brett Meyers and newly appointed CMO Nils Andén, CurrencyFair allows individuals and businesses to exchange currencies and send funds to bank accounts worldwide via a P2P online marketplace. Customers can negotiate their own exchange rates with other customers going the other direction.
The company, regulated by the Irish Financial Regulator as an Authorised Payments Institution under the European Payment Services Regulations 2009, currently employs approx. 90 people.


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Huawei said it will cut 100 jobs from its U.S. network infrastructure team, about a quarter of the workforce in that division, as it seeks to streamline its operations in a market where it has faced hostility.
The job cuts, which were first reported by LightReading, do not affect Huawei's other U.S. business units, including consumer devices, enterprise and research and development. A Huawei spokeswoman declined to comment on the reasons for the job cuts beyond a statement the company provided.
"Huawei Technologies USA recently simplified and streamlined its organization to sustain a profitable infrastructure business in the U.S.," the company said in a statement. "We have limited the reduction necessary to best streamline the organization to allow the company to continue providing U.S. carrier customers with the best technology solutions while maintaining our cost structure. Our long-term commitment to the U.S. infrastructure market and our U.S. carrier customers remains unchanged."
The cuts come after Huawei was rebuked by the U.S. Congress, which said in a report that Huawei's network gear, along with the gear of ZTE, posed a threat to national security. An October report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence recommended that the United States block acquisitions and mergers involving Huawei and ZTE, and it also recommended that the U.S. government and U.S. companies avoid using equipment from the two Chinese companies. Huawei and ZTE pushed back aggressively against the report's conclusions, and have repeatedly said they do not pose a security threat and have no ties to the Chinese military or government.
Earlier this week ZTE said it will invest $30 million more in the United States to demonstrate its commitment to the market. ZTE said it will use the funds to improve and integrate existing technologies, strengthen lab capabilities and build up the company's local capabilities to work closely with operators. The company noted that the investment will help spur job creation.
Meanwhile, rumors indicate that Huawei will announce a pair of smartphones running Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone 8 software at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. According to the blog Unwired View, Huawei is preparing the high-end Ascend W2 and the low-end Ascend W1 phones. The post said little is known about the W2, but that the W1 will sport a 4.3-inch WVGA display, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 5-megapixel rear camera, a VGA front-facing camera, 512 MB of RAM and a 2,000 mAh battery. A Huawei spokeswoman declined to comment on report.
- see this LightReading article
- see this Unwired View post
- see this Digital Trends post
ZTE to invest $30M more in U.S., plans high-end smartphone for CES
China lashes out at U.S. over Huawei/ZTE report, cites 'Cold War mentality'
Clearwire selects Huawei as one of its LTE vendors
Sprint CEO: We likely won't use Huawei gear
Huawei says U.S. report will not harm its business in overseas markets
Huawei, ZTE fight back over U.S. report as concerns about their long-term prospects deepen


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High rates of battery drain with modern cell phones are nothing now, that’s why there’s a whole industry around portable charging solutions. But the Pronto charger is different.
Currently on Kickstarter, the Pronto 12 portable charger can juice most phones up to 9 times, but the really neat feature is how fast it will charge up itself! Power Practical says plugging in the Pronto 12 for just 5 minutes will sponge up enough electrons to completely re-gas an iPhone. And with a full charge, it can even power a laptop using a 12-volt adapter. Plus, it’s built tough and features a handy strap to keep your phone from dangling.
Power Practical is no stranger to kickstarter, either. Their last idea, the Power Pot, landed them on the TV show Shark Tank, where Mark Cuban decided to invest in the company. The Pronto chargers should ship next summer.
Compared to even mediocre speakers or headphones, the music coming from the speakers of your iPhone could best be described as tinny. Or, to be honest, let’s just say “crappy.”
The crew of golden-eared folks at Amp have a solution, though: a svelte iPhone case that packs two much better speakers, a battery, and most important, a 24-bit DAC for taking your headphone listening to the next level. It also works as a much improved speakerphone and can charge your phone in a pinch. The Amp app can customize and equalize the sound according to your hearing, musical tastes and listening environment. Sounds good to us!
The AMP iPhone case will debut next year but you can preorder one now for half off MSRP, or about $70, so check the link below for more details, and get ready to pump up the volume.
Edward Snowden’s disclosures that the U.S. government was spying on, well, just about everybody has driven a wedge between the Feds and many tech companies, and no one made that clearer than Google boss Eric Schmidt at a recent meeting of concerned tech leaders.
Organized by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and taking place in the heart of Silicon Valley, the meeting was an airing of grievances about government intrusion into users’ private data – and Schmidt got everyone’s attention when he said continued unwarranted surveillance could end up “breaking the Internet.” He also said the lingering impact of the spying was “severe and getting worse.”
But could the tide be turning? Apple’s iPhone 6 running iOS8 is essentially spook-proof, and it’s given Apple a legal and technical way to say “we can’t” if Uncle Sam asks them to peek inside someone’s iPhone. Other companies may follow suit. We’d like to hear what you do to keep your private data… private, so leave a comment below.
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- The svelte Mu Two international travel charger can power your laptop and phone


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“Honey is a beautiful product,” says Wibabara Angeline, the Managing Director of ATIC Limited, an agri-tech innovation and consultancy group that partners with development agencies that support farmers. It does this by providing agricultural equipment and training for mastering beekeeping.
She spills a golden line of honey from a stick. It pools on a piece of white paper. “If it is good honey,” she says, “It will not leave a mark.”
She lifts the paper above her head. “See,” she says, “It’s dry.” Wibabara returns the stick to the pitcher. “The quality is good.”
She goes on to explain the markers of quality honey: low water content is one of them, no more than 20%. “Another parameter of quality in honey is density,” says Wibabara. “We also have other [and] a bit more sophisticated parameters like the HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural) [test], where we can determine if there’s no sugar added in honey, or if it has been exposed to high temperature.”
Then there’s the issue of smoke — especially with honey from Africa — since traditionally it’s used to disarm the bees in order to extract the honey from the hive. When used in large quantities or improperly, the smoke can decrease the quality of the honey due to the strong odor it leaves behind. Wibabara’s team trains master beekeepers and teaches them the art of using smoke but without damaging the end product.
“If it is handled correctly, if it is done professionally,” says Wibabara, “honey can be of good quality with a small quantity of smoke. We teach people how to use the smoker and not put the smoke directly into the hive so that we can also preserve the quality of the honey which is our primary concern."
ATIC operates in 13 districts and assists more than 80 cooperatives in the country. With experience working on the Rwandan Standards Board and being in charge of agriculture quality control, Wibabara comes highly qualified.
She got into the bee business though with her work at SNV, Netherlands Development Organization, that focuses on the sectors of agriculture, energy, water, sanitation and hygiene.
“When we were inspecting shops and supermarkets,” says Wibabara, “[I noticed] they were having a big problem of honey coming from different producers, so I got interested to help them improve on quality. When I was working with [SNV], I saw that the problem was not only on quality but also on quantity. With my company now, we are helping both in quantity and quality.”
One reason for decreased production of honey is believed to be linked to beehives in proximity to farmland and consequently pesticides.
According to The New Times, “The current practice where crop production is mixed with bee farming, farmers argued, was exposing the bees to dangerous pesticides, leading to massive deaths of bees and low output of honey.”
Last year, in response to this problem, the Rwandan government permitted beekeepers to use state forests to increase the yield of honey. Another reason for low yields is from deforestation and forage removal that the bees depend on for pollination and honey production.
“More trees mean more forage, or food for the bees. This results in richer honey harvests, providing a financial incentive for maintaining an ecosystem,” (BBCFuture).
Deforestation along with erratic rains brought on by climate change, are also causing deadly flooding in the region.
“Bees are so beneficial for life,” says Wibabara. “If I want to keep my field, if I want to keep my flowers, if I want to keep my maize, I need something to help me on pollination. If pollination is artificially made it’s so costly, but when you have bees around, they do that job for us and they don’t even ask you to pay.”
“Bees are so important in agriculture. If bees are no longer on this earth,” she adds, “there would be no life. If you see what bees can do, you also have to take good care of them.”
Teaching her community to care for the bees is what Wibabara and her team do best. They do this in partnership with development organizations such as World Vision Rwanda and the ADRA Strive Foundation among others.
“We are not only delivering equipment to people,” she says, “we are giving the beekeepers time to know how to use [that] equipment. We give them Master Beekeepers.”
ATIC’s target end user is primarily youth cooperatives. Her business goes beyond appreciation for the bees and professional training in beekeeping; she also helps in manufacturing and even bringing the product to market as a middle person.
“We teach them to manufacture different product from bees, especially from honey and wax,” explains Wibabara. “We teach them to produce cosmetic products to use on the skin […] while they’re waiting for the honey to mature for harvesting. We help them to find something else they can that’s linked to their business.”
In addition to cosmetics, beekeepers sell honey as medicine, a cough suppressant, especially for children. ATIC also buys honey directly from the beekeepers.
“When we get that to market, the honey is going to be from farmers that work together and then it’s going to be sent to the USA market. This is one of our milestones.”
Since ATIC started this work, growth for the company and its beneficiaries has been huge. It wouldn’t have been possible though without additional partners, one of which is Kountable, a for-profit company that assisted ATIC with purchasing the bee equipment when traditional bank loans were taking too long for World Vision’s contract deadline.
“Since I’ve started to work with Kountable my portfolio has increased between 10 and 15 times, because now I’m not afraid to take a deal of $200M RWF (218,000 USD),” says Wibabara, “I have grown a lot. Normally, we get purchase orders and submit them to Kountable, and then they help us to buy equipment from our suppliers, and then they pay the supplier and the transporter, and then it’s our responsibility to take the products to market.”
Kountable connects SMEs with contracts from large organizations who are looking to purchase high tech goods. This partnership freed up ATIC to take on multiple contracts and bigger ones; of the five she submitted, the largest has been nearly a half a million USD. The business prosperity is then trickling down to the entire community.
“Our business is also increasing because people are learning from others. If we start with one cooperative in a district, other cooperatives see and start requesting to do the same.
“So, our business is getting bigger and it’s also improving the life of people that are working with us, […] especially because they’re learning. They’re not supposed to stay [in the] field — they can also do beekeeping.”
When asked why she does this work, Wibabara explains, “I wanted to change some things, especially in [the] agriculture sector. Even if I’m still in beekeeping, I see some other areas to go into. Maybe with the help of Kountable we’re going to [have] some other business opportunities [in the] export of fresh Rwandan produce to different markets.”
Wibabara’s business is making huge economic and environmental impact — it’s also changing the outlooks of women, bringing new opportunities and ideas as to what is possible for a woman in the workforce.
“We don’t have a lot of maybe gold or other precious resources but we have people, and we have bright women.”
“[Some] tend to think that women in Africa are not working,” says Wibabara, “actually we’re working, [and] we’re very hardworking. We are also encouraging other ladies, other women, other girls to join us, especially when we’re in a production like beekeeping. Before our culture was not permitting girls to come in, [but] when a Master Beekeeper is a lady, it encourages other ladies just to come in.”
Wibabara’s staff is comprised of women as well who she encourages to come into business, to be self-reliant, to be educated both formally and informally so that their lives can be improved. She tells them not to fear business and to seek tenders, and partners like World Vision and Kountable. Wibabara points out the proud example of 60% of women in parliament as a demonstration of gender equality in her homeland and one of the principal reasons for Rwanda’s recent and rapid growth.
“We don’t have a lot of maybe gold or other precious resources,” she says, “but we have people, and we have bright women.”
“And I can serve [as] an example because I started from a very low level and I can go [anywhere] I want, because I have been working with good partners, I have been motivated. I can describe myself as an entrepreneur, as a business woman, as a motivator, as a mentor. I mentor a lot of ladies, especially young girls, to be self reliant, to be productive, to change the world because it’s possible.”
Now that Kountable has established its position in the country, Hale says the company is looking to deepen its banking relationships to build institutional partnerships with the Kenya ports and wit hthe government getting involved in the new free trade zone.


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WELCOME TO The entertainment REPORT
Feature market insights and perspectives from top C-Level executives, elite technology influencers and thought leaders from your company here. This signature initiative has garnered immense support...
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businesswire | August 23, 2023
HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the HyperX x VALORANT Champions Tour Spark Limited Edition Keycap. Specifically designed for VALORANT fans, the new tournament-exclusive keycap allows fans to personalize their desk setup. The keycap is uniquely crafted to showcase support for your favorite VALORANT Champions and competing teams.
HyperX and Riot Games collaborated to create a champion-tier keycap that boasts a ...
Bluetooth SIG | June 09, 2022
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the trade association that oversees Bluetooth® technology, announced a new consumer brand for an upcoming audio broadcasting capability based on Bluetooth technology. This new capability, previously known as Audio Sharing, is now Auracast™ broadcast audio. Auracast™ broadcast audio enables an audio transmitter, such as a smartphone, laptop, television, or public address system to broadcast audio to an unlimited number of nearby Bl...
Media and Broadcasting
prnewswire | August 22, 2023
FanDuel, North America's premier online gaming company and an Official Sports Betting Partner of the National Football League (NFL), is joining forces with YouTube to offer FanDuel customers a limited-time promotional offer for one of the League's marquee products, NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. This partnership further demonstrates that FanDuel continues to deliver on its commitment to make all moments in sports matter more.
Between August 21 and September...
Arkadium | November 25, 2021
Arkadium, the leading creator of classic games for grown-ups, today announced the official release of Arkadium Advantage, a premium cross-platform gaming subscription. Arkadium Advantage has the ability to be gifted, just in time for the holiday season.
Perks of Arkadium Advantage include:
Ad-free gaming - Arkadium Advantage offers an ad-free experience across Arkadium’s entire library of 100+ games and apps
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Valrhona Hot Chocolate Festival
JANUARY 19 – FEBRUARY 3, 2019
BENEFITTING FOOD TANK (New York City) & LA TABLÉE DES CHEFS (Montréal)
After the success of last year’s hot chocolate celebration, Valrhona is excited to announce the 4th edition of the Valrhona Hot Chocolate Festival in NYC, Montréal, and Québec City. On January 19 through February 3, Restaurants, Bakeries, and Chocolatiers from New York will be participating in the festival, promoting artisanal and premium hot chocolate and raising money for Food Tank, a non-profit organization that is fighting against food waste and pushing for food system change. Montréal and Québec City proceeds will benefit La Tablée des Chefs, a non-profit organization who feeds families in need and develops future generations culinary education.
These establishments will create and sell unique hot chocolates at their locations featuring Valrhona chocolate. A portion of the proceeds ($0.50cts) of each hot chocolate sold will go to support the Food Tank Organization and La Tablée des Chefs. A huge thank you for all who joined us for the New York Kickoff Party on January 17 at Ladurée in Soho and/or stopped by our Montréal Kickoff Event on January 14 above Jean Talon Market.


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Crypto has the potential to build a robust banking system that serves everyone around the world. But while the accessibility of digital currency has a progressive force on the fintech industry, staggering gender disparity persists across the workforce that drives the field.
Gender equality goes beyond ticking a diversity box. While female leadership is growing, there’s a lot of untapped innovation and perspective that could be pivotal in better meeting women’s needs, bridging the gender gap, and helping to build greater economic inclusion.
In part two of our “Influential Women in Crypto” series, we'll highlight the women developers underpinning a borderless financial system and next-generation Web3 technology. If you haven’t checked out part one of this series, we dove into the roots of five women leaders spearheading the transformation of the fintech space.
Zoe Koulouris – VP of Product Strategy at Foundry Digital
Zoe Koulouris is bringing the benefits of blockchain solutions to the public by helping companies navigate and implement the technology. Koulouris is co-founder of Upstate Interactive, a Web3 software development and consulting company synergizing to shape a future of decentralization. Upstate was acquired by Foundry Digital LLC in 2022.
Outside the virtual world, Koulouris is helping to bridge a more equitable future as she supports women to pursue careers in the technology field. A 2023 Tech Woman of the Year finalist, Koulouris co-founded Women in Coding to provide free coding lessons and network opportunities for aspiring women in the software development field.
Cathie Wood – CEO and Chief Investment Officer at ARK Invest
Cathie Wood has made headlines for her bold and bullish investments in disruptive technologies like bitcoin, rallying the coin’s potential to scale across the globe by the end of 2030, shield wealth from inflation, and serve as a bridge to financial freedom (phew!)
With over two decades of experience in financial and economic strategy managing millions of dollars in assets under ARK Invest, Wood was named an exclusive roundtable expert in the 2019 Fortune Investors Guide. She was additionally acknowledged in the Bloomberg 50 list and received the “Women in Finance – Outstanding Contribution” award from Markets Media.
Nicole Muniz – CEO of Yuga Labs
Nicole Muniz is at the forefront of tech, creativity, and shaping blockchain-based digital art. Muniz is CEO of Yuga Labs, a blockchain-powered development company that became a household name with the eruption of Bored Ape Yacht Club, an iconic nonfungible token now dominating over one-third of all NFT trading. With her background in advertising and marketing for brand giants Nike, Google, Ikea, and EA, Muniz has garnered a reputation for creative strategy and leadership.
Muniz maintains big ambitions to scale the NFT ecosystem and create virtual worlds that pave the way for dozens of community-created projects, in turn empowering true ownership of self-made identity and independence that come with a decentralized platform.
Cathy Hackl – CEO and Chief Metaverse Officer at Futures Intelligence Group
Heralded the “Godmother of the Metaverse,” Cathy Hackl is a true tech futurist and globally recognized business leader with her deep expertise in metaverse-related fields. She implements innovation strategies as CEO of Futures Intelligence Group, a leading consultancy for top brands like Amazon Web Services, HTC VIVE, and Magic Leap to extend their services into the virtual world.
Hackl also serves as VP at Avatar Dimension, Microsoft’s first volumetric capture studio offering holography and other mixed reality features for training, government, and entertainment sectors.
Along with authoring her book Into the Metaverse -The Essential Guide to the Business Opportunities of the Web3 Era in 2023, Hackl is a sought-after keynote speaker, having been featured in 60 Minutes+, CNBC, WSJ, and more. BigThink lauded Hackl as one of the top 10 most influential women in tech in 2020 and she ranked in the prestigious Thinkers50 for top 30 management thinkers shaping the future.
Olliv believes the benefits of cryptocurrency should be available to everyone, regardless of gender identity, nationality, or financial situation. That’s why we built our financial services platform to be simple, secure, and seamlessly accessible. Learn more.


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The federal government recently provided another reason for consumers to purchase hybrid vehicles, following President Barack Obama's recently proposed tax incentives and subsidies for alternative-power cars.
The threat of higher gas prices during the summer has driven some consumers to purchase electric or hybrid vehicles, and buyers now will reap even more benefits from the switch from traditional gas-powered vehicles.
“It’s time to end that taxpayer giveaway to an industry that’s never been more profitable, invest in clean energy that’s never been more promising,” Obama said.
The new proposal calls for increasing a $7,500 credit to $10,000 for consumers and businesses that buy vehicles powered with an electric battery, natural gas or hydrogen.
The incentives aim to encourage Americans to invest in more vehicles that cut down carbon emissions and promote alternative electric choices.
In February, hybrid vehicle sales for Japanese automaker Toyota increased 60 percent from a year earlier to 27,458 following the rising gas prices and high demand for alternative fuel cars.


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New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) The government is likely to provide certain support measures in the proposed national fisheries policy to promote exports of marine products, an official said.
The government is drafting a national fisheries policy to enhance growth of marine fishery, aquaculture and mariculture in the country.
'One of the prime objectives of the policy is to double fishery exports and improve lives of fishermen,' the official said.
The sector has been one of the major contributors of foreign exchange earnings with India being one of the leading seafood exporting nations in the world.
The marine exports stand at about 5 per cent of total exports of India, which was USD 330 billion in 2018-19. It constitutes about 20 per cent of total agri-exports.
During 2018-19, export of marine products stood at 13,92,559 tonnes and valued at Rs 46,589 crore (USD 6.73 billion).
The rapid increase in the growth of seafood exports has been mainly due to boom in brackish water aquaculture.
The official also said the greater emphasis would be given for product and market diversification in exports with improved infrastructure, trained human resources and support facilities to move up the value chain and meet international standards.
Appropriate interventions are also under consideration in the policy to address the critical gaps for growths of exports, the official added.
India is emerging as the fourth-largest exporters of sea food in the world and it is the second-largest aquaculture producer, and third-largest fish producer in the world. PTI RR HRS


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Bad news could be waiting for gamers hoping to buy a new Nintendo Switch console in 2021.
The latest reports suggest that Nintendo is preparing to release an upgraded next-gen console in the coming months.
What would make this latest version of the Switch more special is that it will be able to handle 4K visuals when docked.
Nintendo remains silent on its plans for the rest of 2021, only going as far as to mention new games.
But that hasn’t stopped new rumours being shared regarding the new console hitting shelves, even though some of them don’t include good news.
According to one industry insider commenting on ResetEra, the Nintendo Switch Pro is set to be delayed until 2022.
The new console could still be announced during the current fiscal year, but that is still a massive amount of time.
The ResetEra post explains: “I do believe it’ll be announced the coming FY (Fiscal Year).
“The plan was to release this year, but I suspect it’ll be delayed into 2022. Delays can, and will, continue to be an every changing variable in figuring out when we’ll hear about it and see it.”
However, it should be noted that many Nintendo Switch Pro rumours are circulating, with some suggesting that there could be more than one model being worked on.
There are also differing opinions regarding how the Nintendo Switch Pro will achieve 4K support and whether it will be limited to docking.
Another rumour connected to the Nintendo Switch Pro is that it might be able to run games the base model cannot.
This would essentially make them exclusive to the Switch Pro unless a new streaming service is announced.
Another topic being shared on Resetera is that third-party developers will be especially keen to take advantage of the new technology.
“There will be some select exclusives, especially from third-party partners,” reads a Resetera post. “May not be a big number of them, but I know of at least one.”
It makes sense that third-party developers would want to take advantage of the additional horsepower.
If the Nintendo Switch Pro could run games like Call of Duty Warzone and Cold War, then it could be a big earner for Activision.
That hasn’t stopped other big games launching on the normal Nintendo Switch, with the latest big game being Apex Legends.
A few Nintendo Switch exclusives have been announced for the launch of the free-to-play Battle Royale Shooter, with Nintendo confirming this week:
“To celebrate the game’s launch, all players who jump into the game on Nintendo Switch before the end of Season 8 will get the all-new Legendary P.A.T.H. skin.
“Nintendo Switch players will be granted 30 free levels for their Season 8 Battle Pass upon purchase (Premium sold separately). From 3/9-3/23, players will also earn double XP.
“Game requires a download of at least 30 GB via a wireless Internet connection. You may also be required to create or link a Nintendo Account.”
The big downside to the launch of Apex Legends on the Nintendo Switch is the need for an additional microSD card, with internal storage an area where the console look to expand.
Published at Thu, 11 Mar 2021 03:34:28 +0000


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Lycra-based apparel products to feature on online aggregator by spring 2019
For next April, Lycra is setting up an online aggregator showcasing the products of all the apparel brands which use Lycra fibres, with links to the various partner brands’ e-tail sites. At a time when trade shows like Première Vision are creating e-marketplaces, major textile manufacturers too are beginning to tap the possibilities offered by e-commerce.
The announcement was made at the ‘Lycra Fiber Moves’ hosiery industry workshop held on October 18 and 19 in Como, Italy (read our report here). The aggregator will only include Lycra-based products whose brands will have given their consent.
“The aggregator is something on which we have been working for a long time,” said Karie Ford, global brand & communications director at Lycra. “We currently have a site accessible by the general public, Lycra.com, as well as a B2B site. The idea is to start off by combining them, so that our business can be understood more clearly from the outside,” she added.
There will be two advantages for Lycra. On the one hand, the aggregator will highlight, for the general public and young consumers in particular, the huge variety of products and brands using Lycra fibres, while at the same time strengthening Lycra’s brand image. On the other, through the aggregator, Lycra will be able to handle first-hand the communication of its brand name to end-consumers, something which Lycra-using brands don’t always manage well.
This eagerness to put the Lycra brand centre-stage coincides with a change of ownership for the Lycra corporation. The A&AT (Apparel & Advanced Textiles) division of Invista, which owns Lycra, has been involved in an acquisition bid by giant Chinese textile group Shandong Ruyi for nearly a year. A change of ownership which for the time being is still awaiting the approval of the Chinese authorities.
Copyright © 2023 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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It is believed that seven coffee beans were smuggled from Yemen and brought to South India, where they were planted. That’s how Indians were first acquainted with coffee. Through its journey of evolution, the daily cup of Joe has advanced from the traditinal South Indian filter coffee to instant coffee in India. Today, coffee drinkers find their daily caffeine dose in spoonfuls of instant coffee. Revenue in the instant coffee segment in India stands at US$ 206 million in 2018 and is expected to rise by 5.9% annually (CAGR 2018-2021), according to a report by statista.com. The dominant players in the instant coffee market remain Nestle’s Nescafe and Unilever’s Bru.
The brands have added a new segment to instant coffee – coffee premix, a blend of coffee powder with milk powder, sugar, preservatives and flavors. The demand for coffee premix is increasing both for personal consumption as well as at Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), giving a significant boost to the coffee premix market. QSRs, especially, are a big opportunity for the coffee premix market to tap.
A quick stroll through the Reliance Fresh store, a super market in Jaipur, presented stacks of coffee premix placed right next to instant coffee. The different variants of coffee premix by Nescafe were displayed right next to each other, vying for shoppers’ attentive eyes.
Going by the trends today, Indians are choosing convenience over authenticity. Coffee lovers prefer instant coffee over its traditional counterpart as it comes with an advantage of being time and cost effective. Keeping in mind this changing buying behavior of consumers, giant coffee players such as Nescafe by Nestle have launched coffee premix, which is a balanced combination of coffee, milk and sugar that simply needs to be mixed with water or milk to prepare a cup of coffee.
Nescafe claims to provide a variety of gourmet recipes in its instant coffee segment. The brand introduced two variants to its coffee premix segment – cappuccino and chocomocha – to woo Indian consumers. It packaged the variants in sachets that came in a monocarton box. The packaging with a brown base and a splash of red and purple, displays an ‘adult’s GDA (Guidelines Dairy Amounts)’ on the front, giving the exact amount of sugar, total fat, saturated fat, energy, and sodium in one serving. The packaging further claims that the drink has a ‘richy aroma’ and is ‘deliciously frothy’ while connoting the ‘cafe experience’ in an attempt to premiumize the product.
The instant of them all
While the sachets in monocarton boxes found many takers, Nescafe decided to take it a level up for the convenience of on-the-go consumers by introducing its coffee premix in an easy-to-carry cup packaging. The cup, with a lid on top, contains a sachet of coffee premix that can pe poured into the cup with hot water to prepare the drink. The advertisement of the product refers to it as ‘The cup that gets you going,’ perhaps symbolizing its instant nature. Priced at INR 25, the cup further reinforces its nature as an on-the-go product. The product is especially designed for consumers who are constantly on the move and hardly get time to sit at one place to consume their favorite drink. While this is a relatively niche format for now, offering coffee lovers the choice to have a quick cup instantly without brewing, the instant nature of the product robs the user of the choice to adjust the amount of milk or sugar in their drink.


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WINDSOR, ONT. — Jennifer Reaume and her two brothers had the opportunity “a while ago” to add a second dealership, a move that would have made Reaume Chevrolet-BuickGMC of LaSalle, Ont., part of the trend toward consolidation in Canada’s dealership system.
“In [neighbouring] Amherstburg, a dealership came up, and we went through the process. We thought because there’s three of us, it wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Reaume said, referring to brothers Jeff and Craig, who help run the fourth-generation dealership.
“When it didn’t end up happening, we were OK with it.”
At a rival Windsor-area dealership, Rafih Auto Group, it did end up happening — again and again.
“We’re constantly looking to grow,” said Zeyad Rafih, vice-president of group fixed operations. Recent acquisitions by the 16-dealership group include stores in the Greater Toronto Area.
CONSOLIDATION: AN IMPERATIVE
The numbers across Canada suggest consolidation is less a trend and more likely an imperative as the population ages and the costs of renovating stores rise. While nine per cent of all new-vehicle sales in Canada were handled by group-owned franchised stores in 2000, by last year that number soared to 58 per cent, according to statistics compiled by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.
The boom in mergers and acquisitions caught the attention of Farid Ahmad, founder and CEO of Markham based Dealer Solutions North America Inc., in 2012. Ahmad had been providing talent-recruitment services to auto dealers since 1998, when he began getting requests for help understanding how much the dealerships themselves were worth.
Since then, his company has been involved in 158 transactions, making it the largest in Canada by the number of deals. The average value of the transactions Dealer Solutions represents is $8.5 million.
Most of the time, the company represents the sellers.
“Typically, people who are selling may not have the experience because it’s been a family business. They don’t understand all the steps and the pitfalls that are going to happen in a selling process,” Ahmad said.
Sellers’ top concerns are confidentiality, factory approval, the buyer’s ability to pay, severance costs and what to do with the proceeds, he said.
“We take a selling client and hold their hand through all the ups and downs of the process,” Ahmad said.
Valuations are down slightly from their peak in 2016, he said, as buyers have become pickier about brand and location.
But it’s still a very active market, said Ahmad, who expects to close 40 more deals this year.
Some of the nearly half-dozen rivals within an easy drive of the Reaume family’s dealership have formed large dealer ownership groups, a decision that industry advisers say can help owners raise money and cut costs.
But Jennifer Reaume, the dealership’s general sales manager, said the family sees no need to join the rush to bulk up. Instead, the Reaumes have focused on expanding their existing dealership, adding more floor space and more brands.
Until the auto crisis of 2008, the business begun by her great-grandfather specialized in Chevrolet. But the massive restructuring at General Motors — after which many dealerships closed — provided an opportunity to add Buick and GMC, she said.
‘ECONOMIES OF SCALE’
At Rafih Auto Group, in contrast, the company’s reach extends well beyond its Windsor base.
The company, founded by Terry Rafih in 1985, sells 25 brands among its 16 stores, including Toyota, Chrysler, Land Rover, Lexus, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC.
“You get a lot of economies of scale when you grow your company to that size,” said Zeyad Rafih.
“Your buying power gets bigger. When you represent multiple brands, you become a one-stop shop for your customer.”
Industry experts said the pressure to consolidate is coming partly from the brands. Automakers are demanding that dealers invest more heavily and more often to spruce up their showrooms, increasing the costs and potential risks for owners.
The Reaumes’ dealership is no exception.
“When GM says to you, ‘Do it,’ yo do it. It’s part of the image program,” Jennifer Reaume said.
She said she understands the desir of many auto dealers to “monopolize the market” by buying rival locations and brands. But the competitive pressures aren’t quite as steep in a small bedroom community such as LaSalle, Ont., where the Reaumes’ business is based.
“Right now, we’re the only car dealership in this little town,” she said. “It could change. If someone were to open up a dealership across the street from us, we wouldn’t wan that.”


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Visa has launched its mVisa QR code-based mobile payment service in Kenya with Co-Operative Bank, Family Bank, KCB and NIC Bank. “With mVisa, consumers can directly access all of the funds in their bank accounts to pay merchants or individuals,” Visa says. mVisa was unveiled in August 2015 through a pilot with Indian banks. ICICI Bank became the first to offer the service to consumers in October, followed by State Bank of India, which announced its support for mVisa in May 2016. It is due to arrive in Nigeria by the end of this year.
- Rambus publishes quick guide to Apple Pay
- Chinese banks roll out face recognition at the ATM
- Germany’s central bank reports on potential of blockchain for payments
- NXP releases NFC tag toolkit for iOS
- Banks back government-led Taiwan Pay QR payments service


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(Reuters) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc, long criticized for its low hourly pay and employee benefits, said it would increase wages for half a million U.S. employees this year.
Wal-Mart's hourly full-time and part-time workers will earn at least $1.75 above the current federal minimum wage, or $9 per hour, starting in April, the largest private sector employer in the United States said on Thursday.
Current employees will earn at least $10.00 per hour by Feb. 1, 2016, the company said.
Wal-Mart, which has about 1.3 million U.S. workers, has been a target for activists in the contentious national debate over proposals to raise the minimum wage.
The world's largest retailer also reported a better-than- expected fourth-quarter profit as shoppers spent more of their savings from lower U.S. gas prices at the company's stores.
However, the company cut its sales forecast for the year ending January 2016, citing a strong dollar.
Wal-Mart, whose shares were down almost two per cent in premarket trading, said it now expected sales to increase one to two per cent, below its previous forecast of two to four per cent.
It also forecast earnings of $4.70-$5.05 per share, below the average analyst estimate of $5.19.
Wal-Mart reported a 1.5 per cent increase in same-store sales in the United States, its second straight quarter of growth after six quarters of flat or declining sales.
Analysts on average had forecast a rise of 0.7 per cent, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.
Net profit attributable to Wal-Mart rose to $4.97 billion, or $1.53 per share, for the quarter ended Jan. 31, from $4.43 billion, or $1.36 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.58 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.
Total revenue rose 1.4 per cent to $131.57 billion.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.53 per share on revenue of $132.35 billion.
© Copyright Canadian HR Reporter, HAB Press. All rights reserved.


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A jump in the sales of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), one of the premium offerings of Tata Motors, in the UK led to a surge in the company's shares in the Indian stock markets on March 6.
As per the numbers released for February 2023, Tata Motors recorded a total sales of 1,670 units of JLR in the British market during the month, which is 33 percent higher as against 1,253 units sold during the year-ago period.
This led to a noticeable jump in the stock of Tata Motors, which climbed by nearly three percent to cross the Rs 440 mark.
At 3:30 pm, the shares settled at Rs 440.70 apiece at the BSE, which was 2.97 percent higher than the closing price of March 3. At the NSE, it settled at Rs 440.10, marking a 2.83 percent surge as against the ending price of the last trading session.
The 33 percent year-on-year jump in JLR's UK sales has been reported days after a leading British daily said that Tata Motors has sought over £500 million in aid from the UK government for setting up a battery factory.
The factory, which Tata Motors is reportedly considering setting up in Somerset in partnership with Chinese battery maker Envision, will be critical in supporting the manufacturing of JLR's fleet of electric vehicles.
The report, published in Financial Times last week, said sources have claimed that Tata Motors has given "weeks" to the UK officials to pledge financial support. The company is weighing the option of setting up the plant in Spain if the talks with the British government fail to yield results, the persons aware of the development told the newspaper.


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In the aftermath of the presidential impeachment, all of America's leading TV news brands have reached their highest measure of trust since Brand Keys began tracking it for MediaPost in the summer of 2018. Except one.
As in the previous three semi-annual tracking studies, Brand Keys included the President in the survey asking thousands of Americans to rate how their trust influences their perception of a news brand. The President's fell to its lowest level yet, with just 15% of respondents identifying "trust" as a value they associate with his brand.
"We suspect a lot of the lift was due to the impeachment coverage," speculates Brand Keys Founder and President Robert Passikoff.
The total number of respondents for the February 2020 wave included 4,624 TV nework viewers (balanced for gender and political affiliation, drawn from the 9 U.S. Census Regions). The President's evaluations were balanced by political affiliation, included 1,200 respondents from the total audience.
Among the TV news brands, MSNBC has been most ascendant over the four surveys conducted by Brand Keys, rising to 94%, followed by the BBC's 93%, Fox News' 89%, PBS' 88%, Bloomberg's 86% and CNN's 83%.


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Reports indicate that Sony could make an acquisition offer to buy out Take-Two Interactive, however that deal seems much more unlikely now.
Acquisition rumors are a dime a dozen in the video games space. The pending $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger has fueled lots of speculation of potential acquisitions. The most popular report is that Sony Interactive Entertainment could make an aggressive move to buy Take-Two Interactive and acquire Rockstar Games and the lucrative billion-dollar Grand Theft Auto franchise, as well as 2K's powerful sports brands and Zynga's heavy-hitting mobile content.
The reports were already pretty shaky from the start. For one, Take-Two just bought Zynga for $12.7 billion, the second largest video games acquisition in history, which boosted the company's valuation past $20 billion. Could Sony make a buyout offer for Take-Two? Potentially, but it might be tough to get approval from the board and/or investors due to the high valuation costs and the fact that SIE may need to exceed current TTWO share value for the buyout to be appealing.
On Take-Two's side, the company's board of directors would have to entertain any serious buyout offers and determine what's best for shareholders and the company itself. TTWO shareholders would also vote on whether or not the acquisition offer should go through.
And, of course, we could see another video games titan come in and object to the acquisition by arguing that Grand Theft Auto could be an essential IP, not unlike Sony's arguments with Call of Duty in regards to the Microsoft-Activision merger.
In an interview with TheWrap's The Grill 2022 event, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that it's best for the publisher to be independent, but Take-Two would consider a buyout offer:
"Not really [I don't worry about being acquired.] We're a public company and all public companies are potentially available and if someone shows up with up with a meaningful cash offer at a meaningful premium, every public company has to engage.
"We like being independent. We've created an enormous amount of value as an independent company, we're not at a scale where we are a major in this business (there aren't many of them). Depending on what happens, we're either the #2 or #3 developer & publisher worldwide.
"That's a pretty good position to be in."
This brings us to the source of the SIE buying TTWO rumor. The report was started by Twitter user Rythian, who said:
"Have it on extremely good word that if Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard, Sony is going after Take-Two Interactive to counter it.
"3 of my trusted and almost always correct sources confirmed that to me."
This claim was always called into question, but now Bloomberg's Jason Schreier adds more doubt to the rumor. A quick bit of searching revealed that Rythian made claims that Sony would acquire basically most of the independent video games market by 2030, inclusing Square Enix, Capcom, Konami, SEGA, Ubisoft, Embracer Group, and Crytek.
This is preposterous and will not happen. Even if Sony had enough money to make a blanket purchase of these video games companies, which it does not and such a major acquisition spree would not be approved by the board nor shareholders, but worldwide regulators would never allow Sony to essentially monopolize the Japanese video games market buy acquiring all of these publishers.
Rythian also says that Sony has "approached CD Projekt multiple times" and that the rationale of announcing multiple Witcher games and a new Cyberpunk project was to boost stock prices before an acquisition was made.
Then there's the reports that Sony is buying Oculus for $4.6 billion, despite Meta having spent over $26 billion on metaverse and XR development in the Oculus Reality Labs division.
Sony's operations are also expanding dramatically, however the company has already set aside a multi-billion dollar budget for these efforts, which include more live service games, new IPs, and expansion onto mobile devices.
No one knows exactly what's going to happen in the video games market these days, but important context is needed with potential sources, their claims, and the actual plans of the companies themselves.


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As the retail apocalypse continues to accelerate as we inch toward the middle of 2019, many in the mainstream media seem content to ignore the major problem: debt. The companies closing stores did have the disadvantage of keeping up with Amazon, but the real problem is that the debt load got to be too much, and they filed bankruptcy.
E-Commerce (or online sales) represented only 14.3% of all consumer sales in 2018. That’s up, but only minimally from 12.9% in 2017 and 11.6% in 2016. These statistics are hardly worth mentioning, however, all of these stores closing had one bigger elephant that no one seems able to talk or write about: massive debt. They simply bit off more than they could chew. The Washington Post, for example, was content to blame the entire “accelerating” retail apocalypse on online sales. Articles that do mention the overloading of debt are barely scratching the surface.
The E-commerce sales are not enough to put stores out of business, but couple that slight loss in sales (even though it wasn’t much as retail consumer spending jumped as well) with the massive debt load these corporations have taken on and we have a retail apocalypse. This very issue shows just how dangerous debt can be.
Shopko’s undoing was their debt load. According to Money.com, Shopko announced in mid-January it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restructuring debt. While trying to stay afloat, the struggling retailer said over the past few months that it would be closing about 250 stores. Plans changed mid-March when Shopko said it would liquidate all of its assets and close all of its stores by June 2019.
Brian Kelly, president of retail consultancy firm Brian Brands, explained to RetailDive.com at the end of 2018, when Shopko had just announced it was closing a few dozen stores. “[Shopko is] another retailer broken by debt and … caught in the death spiral.”
The entire retail apocalypse was set off by the growing problem of corporate debt and the debt-based system we live in. Analysts are predicting 75,000 more stores will be closing by 2026. According to Forbes, in an analysis from UBS, it finds that with each 1% increase in online penetration, some 8,000 to 8,500 stores will need to close. At online sales current rate that means some 75,000 stores will be forced out of business by 2026, or about 7% of the 1,044,754 retail establishments in the United States today, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
During one particularly dramatic 24-hour period in early March, J.C. Penney, Gap, and Victoria’s Secret announced they would be closing more than 300 stores combined. Sears Holdings, which operates Kmart and its iconic Sears flagship department stores, has also been struggling to survive, and many believe it won’t last through 2019. –Money.com


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Rising prices and shrinking inventory defined second-quarter activity within Fairfield County’s housing market, according to a new report issued by Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
The county’s overall single-family home sales hit 3,335 in the second quarter, down by 15.4 percent from the 3,944 sales in the first quarter of 2016 but up by 59.4 percent from the 2,092 sales level in first quarter of this year. The average sales price of $716,845 was up 11 percent from the first quarter’s $645,782 and up 23.3 percent from the $581,263 in the first quarter of 2016. The median sales price was $445,000, up 17.1 percent from the $380,000 price in the first quarter and up 23.6 percent from the $360,000 price set one year earlier. And while the 5,972 total of listed active inventory was 18.4 percent above the first quarter’s level, it was 7.7 percent lower than one year earlier.
Scott Durkin, chief operating officer at Douglas Elliman, noted the second-quarter statistics showed a market with two significant extremes.
“It was the most second-quarter sales in 12 years, coupled with (the) lowest second-quarter inventory in 12 years,” he said. Durkin noted the removal of long-stagnant listings helped shape sales activity. “Sellers who had been chasing the market had some fatigue and decided to pull their homes off – those overpriced listings were not selling. Now, the market is overheated, but in a good way because the shortage in inventory creates these price points.”
The Douglas Elliman report also found vibrancy in the condo market: the $373,516 average sales price in the second quarter was 13.6 percent above the first quarter’s $328,911 and 23.5 percent above the $302,497 recorded in the second quarter of 2016. The median sales price of $279,950 was up 14.3 percent from the first quarter’s $245,000 and 16.1 percent above the second quarter of 2016’s $241,075. Active condo inventory totaled 1,115, up 9.5 percent from the first quarter but down 4.4 percent year over year.
As for Fairfield County’s luxury market, the average sales price of $2.72 million was 3.2 percent higher than the $2.64 million average in the previous quarter and 21.9 percent above the $2.23 million average in the previous year. The median sales price of $2.14 million was barely above the previous quarter, but it was 18.1 percent above the $1.81 million reported in the previous year. Total active inventory in this sector was 1,262 in the second quarter, a 11.5 percent drop from the previous quarter and a 26.5 percent plummet from the previous year.
Durkin pointed to the 12.3 percent quarterly decline in the days on market within the luxury housing sector – from 195 days in the first quarter to 171 days in the second quarter – as evidence that XL-sized home prices have an eager buyer base. “Luxury listings generally [take] longer to sell, but we are regularly seeing large deals north of $10 million,” he stated. “Those are very telling signs of where the market is.”
Within the county’s major submarkets, Greenwich had the highest average price for a single-family house in the second quarter: $2.34 million, up 4.4 percent year over year. Fairfield recorded the greatest year-over-year average sales price upswing, with a 9.3 percent rise from the $665,874 level in the second quarter of 2016 to the $727,640 level in the second quarter.
However, there was some negativity in the market, as three Fairfield County submarkets posted year-over-year declines in the average prices of their single-family homes. New Canaan took a 3.5 percent decline from the $1.78 million price in the second quarter of 2016 to the $1.72 million price in the latest quarterly report. Ridgefield saw an 11.3 percent year-over-year plunge from $788,030 to $698,945. And Westport took a 1.5 percent year-over-year drop from $712,029 to $701,462.
As for the second half of 2017, Durkin predicted an even greater upturn in sales activity. “Agents are telling me this is the busiest July and August they’ve ever seen,” he said. “Real estate is not seasonal anymore – now, it is based on need. Normally, there would be time for a breather, but not in this market.”


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NEW YORK (AP) — It’s Tronc no more. The Chicago-based media company says it’s ditching the name and will revert to its “Tribune Publishing Co.” moniker.
The company rebranded itself Tronc — short for “Tribune online content”— in 2016 to highlight its digital publishing efforts. But the clunky-sounding name quickly became the subject of jokes across social media.
Tronc owns papers across the U.S. including the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News and The Baltimore Sun.
It is also changing its stock ticker from TRNC to TPCO. Both changes are effective after the market closes Tuesday.
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The Food Standards Agency has welcomed today’s decision, by European Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels, to introduce tests throughout Europe to detect BSE infectivity in cattle most at risk of developing the disease.
The Agency is to contact the French authorities to seek assurances within the next week on how they will implement controls to prevent beef banned in France from being exported to the UK. The Agency is to convene an expert group in December to review and assess any risks that may be associated with imported beef or beef products.
Sir John Krebs, Chairman of the Agency, said: “These are sensible and proportionate measures that are consistent with those being called for by the FSA across Europe. They will enable a better assessment of whether there are any new risks from BSE that are not being met by the current controls. We welcome the fact that the European scientific committee is to consider whether further controls are necessary and that the Commission is to inspect the enforcement measures over the next few weeks.
” The Agency is writing to the French authorities to ascertain what safeguards there are to prevent beef banned in France from being exported to the UK. We have asked for a response within seven days and will consider what further action, if any, may be necessary then.
” There is no reason to advise consumers against eating legally sold EU beef in the UK although we are continually checking the situation. We welcome the Council’s acceptance of the FSA’s position on the need for futher labelling in relation to meat products. If consumers have concerns they can then check the country of origin of the product they are buying.”
The European Agricultural Ministers have agreed that:
- From 1st January 2001, all “at-risk” animals over 30 months of age should be tested after slaughter. The need for such tests is to be reviewed after the first test results are known.
- From 1st July 2001, all normal (as opposed to high-risk) animals over 30 months of age which are to enter the food chain should be tested after slaughter.
- The use of fallen stock (for example, animals that have been injured or are dying) is to be prohibited in animal feed
In addition, pending an analysis by the European Scientific Steering Committee on the risks of BSE in France, the French have undertaken not to export beef products currently prohibited for consumption in their own territory. This scientific assessment will be reported to the European Standing Veterinary Committee for their evaluation, before it is presented to the Council of Agriculture Ministers at its meeting on 21st – 22nd December.
The FSA is publishing updated information on a regular basis at www.bsereview.org.uk.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The current UK controls protecting human health are:
EU-wide specified risk material controls in force since 1 October
The complete ban on meat from cattle over thirty months entering the food chain that applies to both EU member states and home produced beef. The only exceptions being beef from the assured beef scheme and beef from 14 BSE free countries.
Ban on feeding of mammalian meat and bonemeal to all farmed livestock
There have been no substantiated cases of imported beef over thirty months old reaching UK consumers. It is illegal and the penalties are high.
Against this background and the fact that the Agency’s independent scientific advisers, the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) have issued no new advice, the Agency has no reason to advise against the consumption of legally-sold EU beef.
This position will be reviewed if:
The incidence of BSE in France or other countries emerges as significantly greater than presently reported; and/or failures are reported in the current controls.
Incidence of reported BSE in the UK and France
In the current year there have been 1141 cases of confirmed BSE in cattle in the UK. This compares to 99 in France.
In the current year there have been 293 cases per million cattle over 24 months old with BSE in the UK. This compares to 19 cases per million cattle over 24 months old with BSE in France.
Level of imports from France into the UK
A total of 147,000 tonnes of beef are imported into UK from all countries including France.
Not all is for human consumption.
A total of 917,000 tonnes of beef are consumed annually in the UK.
All of these are subject to the UK’s over thirty month rule with the exception of meat from the 14 BSE free countries and the assured beef scheme.
No live cattle are imported from France into the UK.


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The overall average of three months shows an increase of 4,400 jobs, said the National Retail Federation (NRF) in its latest press release on employment data.
The annual hiring of temporary holiday workers is on track, which is expected to remain between 5,00,000 and 5,50,000 positions, as per NRF’s forecast.
“This was one of the strongest gains we have seen all year,” said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist of NRF. “You expect employment to be up during the holiday season and retailers are expecting strong holiday sales with related job growth, but overall growth in the economy has to be recognised here as well. We are also seeing new jobs in other sectors of the economy, particularly industrial, and that means more demand for retail goods and a need for more retail workers.”
Economy-wide, average hourly earnings in November increased by 64 cents – 2.5 percent – year over year. The US department of labour said the unemployment rate was 4.1 percent, unchanged from October.
NRF is the world’s largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and internet retailers from more than 45 countries including the US. (VM)
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TOKYO (AP) – United States (US) retailer Walmart is selling off 85 per cent of its wholly owned Japanese supermarket subsidiary Seiyu, while retaining a 15 per cent stake, in a deal valued at JPY172.5 billion (USD1.6 billion), the companies said yesterday.
KKR & Co, a global investment firm, will purchase a 65 per cent stake, while Japanese online retailer Rakuten will acquire a 20 per cent stake from Walmart, they said in a statement.
KKR and Rakuten will bring their expertise in e-commerce and global digital marketing to strengthen Seiyu in the increasingly digital shopping age, according to the statement. Seiyu Chief Lionel Desclee will continue to lead in the transition period, after which he will take on a new role at Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer.
A board will be set up, made up representatives from KKR, Rakuten and Walmart, and a new CEO appointed, the companies said. The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart, which also runs stores in Europe and other parts of Asia, entered the Japanese market with its purchase of a small stake in Seiyu in 2002, promising to bring its “every day low price” to Japan. Seiyu became Walmart’s group company in 2008.


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FRANCE/SAUDI ARABIA: Fromageries Bel expands in Saudi Arabia
just-food.com has just learned that Fromageries Bel , the major French dairy group, has started having jar cheese produced in Saudi Arabia. Fromageries Bel has hooked up with SNZMP , the local New Zealand Milk Products subsidiary. The news comes as a number of Western food manufacturers step up their investment in the markets of the Middle East. Factors including the liberalisation of import regimes and investment laws for foreign companies and a boom in advertising are fuelling the interest of foreign majors. Just last week, for example, Danone announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in Saudi Arabia's second largest fresh dairy,
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