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McDonald’s secret Google campaign: Can it drive searchers to “that place where Coke tastes so good”?
McDonald’s is experimenting with an unconventional marketing campaign that doesn’t mention the brand once- instead urging viewers to search for a phrase instead.
Fast food giant Burger King thought it was being funny when it aired a 15 second commercial that purposely triggered viewers Google Home devices- but many didn’t see the funny side of the privacy intrusion.
Forbes has released its first-ever “Top Influencers” global list, compiling the most popular social media icons from three categories Beauty, Fitness, and Home.
A 16-year old teen from the US is currently on course for the most retweets of all time, after the fast-food chain Wendy's set him a huge social media challenge in exchange for free chicken nuggets for a year.
Pepsi has withdrawn its latest video ad, where reality TV star Kendall Jenner uses a can of Pepsi to soothe tension between protesters and police, sparking accusations that it exploits the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
In 2017, it's getting harder to discern real news stories from fake ones- which made last weekend's April 1st pranks even harder to spot than usual. To help you out, we've put together some of the best hoaxes from this year's pranksters for your viewing pleasure…
Burger King France has launched its first toothpaste- with active whopper extraxts'. Is it an early April Fool's Day prank? Judge for yourself below...
Fashion brand Ted Baker is launching a new comedy sitcom, featuring a shoppable virtual reality film and an Instagram story.
Adobe has unveiled a new campaign – The Hovering Art Director – which takes a comical look at the relationship between art directors, designers and marketers, and the various factors that have to be taken into account when building a standout marketing campaign.
The Super Bowl is one of the biggest ad nights of the year. One month on from the sporting spectacular, how well did the big budget ads amplify their message on social media. New stats from YouGov reveals some surprising results.
Creative agency, Don’t Panic, has created a hero film ‘Things Guys Don’t Talk About’ for Childline, as part of its #ToughToTalk campaign, which aims to empower boys to seek support for suicidal feelings.
Ahead of Sunday’s show, YouTube has created a special-edition YouTube Movie Trailers Leaderboard which ranks the top performing Best Picture nominee trailers, including both studio channels and popular aggregators.
The Oscars’ are now most expensive TV buy after Super Bowl with number of commercials soaring, generating $115m in ad revenue, according to new research.
Following the glamour and excitement of London Fashion Week, which celebrities, influencers and designers got the most buzz on Tumblr?
Google is planning to ditch the 30-second unskippable advertisement format on YouTube next year, and is currently exploring different formats to create a "better ad experience for users and advertisers".
A promotional ad put together by Danish broadcaster TV2 has been shared by millions around the world since the English version was released less than two weeks ago.
Super Bowl ads went political this year, with immigration and diversity championed in between the American Football action.
Ahead of the Super Bowl this Sunday, advertisers have spent a new record of £306 million for 30 second TV ad slots during the game, with more fans watching these ads online.
Unilever-owned Pot Noodle has launched a humourous video showing the rise to power of "Gary" the bricklayer—a man whose public antics closely mirror Trump's. See why it’s our video viral of the week below…
With 2017 underway, now is the perfect time to look back at the great films that made their mark on cinema history in 2016. We know which movies performed well on-screen, but what about on social media?
Snickers is planning the first live commercial ever to air on the Super Bowl, with Star Wars actor Adam Driver on board.
Unilever has repositioned its cleaning brand Jif in Australia with a quirky new video targeting a younger audience.
To market the new horror movie "Rings," the makers Paramount scared the living daylights out of shoppers at an electronics store in White Plains, New York, becoming a massive social media success in the process.
Sainsbury’s has partnered with Weiden + Kennedy to launch a new music based ad-campaign which is calls a ‘step-change’.
With 2016 behind us, Google UK has released the 2016 YouTube Ads Leaderboard celebrating the most popular video ads among UK viewers of the year.
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Opportunities and Threats of Toyota
—Fuel Efficiency focus need to keep innovating here, and they have been where they are going to be Rolling out a hydrogen fuel cell car in 2015. They are a leader in this technology as they have been with the plug in electric/gas vehicles. —Continue adapting to customer’s new needs scion – going for our generation of the generation Y, sporty but cheaper models of cars.
While the Toyota is known as a family car, the scion is seen as the kids car. Going further, the lexus is known as the exus – going for the people who can spend a little more money, and do not want the super popular cars. —More acquisitions to enter new markets Robotics – created a wheelchair that can be controlled by the mind for people who are paralyzed. They are focusing more on robotics to help the elderly, as they are doing in Japan. This will be great here in America as soon as the Baby Boomers start to retire. Toyota has also dipped their feet into Aerospace and Agricultural biotechnology Average car in the US 11 years old, which is a record.
This is at least in part to increasing quality of car manufacturing, making them last longer, but nevertheless, this is an opportunity for all car makers, as people like to upgrade to new technology. Threats —General Motors’ reorganization —VW, BMW~ other cars moving into the fuel efficient focus Honda, Smart cars, Ford, Chevy, Nissan.. They all understand that there is a high demand for these fuel efficient cars with the rising cost of oil, So they are all putting a lot of time and money into the fuel efficiency technology.
Also going along with this are the cars that are fully electric and are what I like to call tiny pop cans, like the smart cars. Toyota can lose a lot of —Natural disasters —Emission regulations Emission standards are requirements that set specific limits to the amount of pollutants that can be released into the environment. Many emissions standards focus on regulating pollutants released by automobiles (motor cars) —Higher cost of raw materials One glaring example is the sky-rocketing cost of rubber, a major tire component, which has climbed nearly 74% this year after rising 92% in 2009

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If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Garmin International Inc., a company grappling with declining sales of its car navigation devices as more people use their phones for directions, has launched a new app for just those people.
Olathe-based Garmin International, part of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), unveiled its StreetPilot onDemand iPhone app on Wednesday — moving into the realm of TeleNav and GoogleMaps with Navigation.
The app already is receiving praise from bloggers, who say it’s cheaper than the competition.
The app costs 99 cents to download for 30 days of premium features. The price then moves to $2.99 a month, compared with the $10 monthly subscription for TeleNav.
The company claims it’s the first iPhone navigation app that includes routing for pedestrians and includes bus and train schedules for many cities.
That means the turn-by-turn directions don’t stop when drivers get out of their cars but can continue right up to the front door.
A GottaBeMobile.com blogger liked the app’s onDemand solution, which lets infrequent travelers use the app. Purchasing the maps themselves on other devices could mean a $40-$80 investment.
“As the maps are pulled from the cloud when users use the app, the maps will always be up to date, though users will need an active data connection to navigate,” blogger Chuong Nguyen said.


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LATAM Cargo is installing a new freight route that will strengthen connectivity between the United States of America (USA) and South America, reducing transportation time and providing greater capacity to its customers.
This new route started to operate with two weekly frequencies in sections from Quito (Ecuador) – Los Angeles (USA) – Houston (USA) – Manaus (Brazil) – Viracopos, Sao Paulo (Brazil). This number is expected to increase to four flights a week in the second semester with the arrival of new cargo planes announced as part of the growth plan.
“At LATAM Cargos we are constantly reviewing our loaded itinerary to look for new attractive opportunities for our customers. In this case the installation of this route corresponds to an initiative that allows us to offer more and be more options present in the most relevant market”, Gudny Genskowsky, Network Director at LATAM Cargo .
With a focus on supporting the flower business, this route will favor the transportation of flowers from Ecuador, varying the export destinations of this product, adding Los Angeles (LAX) as a new delivery point, to those that are Miami and Amsterdam.
In addition to Los Angeles, LATAM Cargo has added Houston to its network, which allows its customers to significantly reduce shipping times from the west coast and southern part of the United States to South America, for the transportation of industrial and electronic equipment, machinery and equipment; engines, auto parts, among others.
As a complement to this operation, LATAM Cargo has confirmed interline agreements to take advantage of the connectivity that Los Angeles Airport has in key markets in Asia. For this reason, the integration of this new route, which will connect the South American States with America, is a reflection of the commitment of LATAM Cargo to adapt to the needs of its customers, using the flexibility of the network to offer personalized solutions.


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By this time next year, artists like Adele and Taylor Swift will be viewed as industry pioneers.
Now, Sony Music is now preparing a massive, company-wide shift towards Hollywood-style ‘windowing,’ according to a bombshell statement by Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. Currently, virtually all Hollywood releases march through a windowed release cycle, starting with higher-generating outlets like movie theaters, and ending with lower-revenue spots like Netflix.
The music industry rarely windowing at all, while mostly giving everything away for free from day one. Now, that’s about to change: in an interview at the tech- and media-focused Re/Code, Lynton pointed to windowing as a broader industry response to tanking revenues, and a solution for both Sony Music and other major music content owners. “We all see the business is moving downhill; the download business is declining quarterly,” Lynton told Re/Code journalist Peter Kafka. “The kind of a service that we would like to see, going forward, is a subscription service… complete story


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Candy.com attracts 1,500 visitors a day, says Schwartz, and 99 percent arrive via "direct navigation." The actual site is little more than a rudimentary layout of milk-chocolate brown and bubble-gum pink with some automated ads thrown in, but he earns tens of thousands of dollars a year from those pay-per-click advertisements.
Slowly, investors are starting to catch on. And the purchase of domains by private investment groups is changing the market.
The early dotcom rush
In the mid-1990s, "lone rangers" lassoed many of the great generic Web addresses and ruled the secondhand market for years, says Jackson. Small companies, often built around one guy, would amass thousands of domains. They were a seclusive bunch, happy to hoard domain names quietly and sell only when the price was right.
Most of the venture capital at the time went to Web companies. But when the dotcom bubble burst in 2001, websites that were once valued at millions of dollars became worthless. Yet Web addresses retained much of their value.
"Beachfront property is still beachfront property, regardless of what house or store sits on top of it," says Rob Sequin, who entered the market in 1999 and now owns about 1,500 Web addresses. "And the beauty of domains is that you don't need to paint them, or maintain them, or pay taxes on them."
By 2003, Web address sales once again broke $1 million. Mr. Sequin says that's the first year he could consider domain trading to be a full-time job.
This time, major investors started paying attention.
Online advertising company Marchex kicked off the trend in November 2004, when it paid $164 million for a portfolio of more than 100,000 generic domain names.The sale was a surprise to many, says Jackson. But most outside investors were still skeptical.
Domain buyers aren't purchasing a business or a loyal audience. They're often buying empty lots. This puzzled many venture capitalists, he says.


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Hot on the heels of an innovative on-pack promotion which brought excitement to the condiments aisle, Caribbean food entrepreneur Levi Roots is now celebrating another successful marketing initiative following the brand’s inaugural partnership with the MOBO Awards.
The MOBO Awards honour some of the music industry’s finest talent from around the world, and as ‘Official Food Sponsor’ for the 2010 event, the brand’s partnership resulted in a host of UK, US and other international artists, being exposed to Reggae Reggae Sauce; reinforcing the brand’s call-to-action which invites consumers to put ‘some music in their food’.
Shah Khan, Senior Brand Manager at AB World Foods commented, “The MOBO Awards are a great fit for the Levi Roots brand, as it shares many of the qualities that our brand does; being a vibrant and current brand with a great heritage. We recognise that one of the ways we can extend the reach of our brand messaging is to engage our consumers via the key influencers who matter to our target audience, but looking beyond the traditional celebrity chefs which other brands so heavily rely on.
“Obviously we have the ultimate brand ambassador in Levi Roots and no-one does the job better of representing his own brand than he does. However we are also eager to tap into the ever growing power of ‘celebrity’. With that in mind, what is important to us as a brand is ensuring that we undertake a more organic approach towards this aim by using partnerships, such as this one, to introduce those key influencers to the brand rather than just recruiting celebrities to become official brand ambassadors.
Khan, continued, “The MOBOs sponsorship also reinforces the Levi Roots brand’s strap line, which invites consumers to put music in their food, and helps to demonstrate to consumers that the messaging is genuine to the brand’s personality and not just a marketing gimmick or pr spin. We believe this to be a step in the right direction, in terms of widening our marketing approach and creating stand out amongst our competitors, and hope this is the start of a strong partnership with the MOBOs going forward”
AB World Foods
Tel: 01942 267090


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The Summer Games happened a little earlier this year. ‘Summer Games’ happened to be the title of Grey Flannel’s latest auction, which saw items from the Maravich Collection, along with gamers from Mel Ott, Willie Mays and Barry Sanders lead to record bidding results for the company.
The Mickey Vernon Museum will host an appraisal event July 13, with the help of Ron Oser of Legendary Auctions, inviting guests to bring in their sports memorabilia for a free appraisal event at the museum’s new location in the Granite Run Mall in Media, Pa.
Unique sports awards and Hall of Famers’ game-worn jerseys lead Grey Flannel’s June 5 Summer Games Auction, with highlights including: 1947 Mel Ott Giants jersey, Jim Brown Rookie of the Year Trophy and Larry Holmes Heavyweight World Championship Belt.
One of the headline items in SCP Auctions’ current sale, the jersey reportedly worn by Reggie Jackson in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, has been withdrawn from the sale regarding inconsistencies with the “NY” logo and the pinstripes based on video footage from the game.
SCP Auctions has a big-time auction scheduled for April 10-27. Among the personal collections of John Havlicek, Steve Garvey, Rollie Fingers and many others will be iconic game-used jersey from Reggie Jackson (Game 6 of 1977 World Series) and Wayne Gretzky (1980-81 Edmonton Oilers).
Las Vegas sports exhibit, SCORE!, serves up impressive memorabilia, interactive exhibits and the local flair for the dramatic. Among those associated with the project are the Basketball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame and Boxing Hall of Fame.
The Miracle on Ice Collection will include 22 items, including the jerseys Eurzione wore against the Soviet Union and the gold medal game, the stick he used to score the winning goal against the Soviets and the gloves he wore throughout the 1980 Olympics.
Under the terms of the extended partnership, Grey Flannel will continue to conduct its annual Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Auction at the Hall each September, host reunion dinners and offer appraisals.
The big-ticket items just keep coming in the hobby, with the latest news coming form Heritage regarding the sale of the Miracle on Ice Collection of Mike Eruzione. This includes the jersey and stick Eruzione used in the 1980 classic against the Soviets.
Featuring memorabilia from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Hockey Hall of Fame, Boxing Hall of Fame, U.S. Soccer Federation and more, Score!, a multi-sport interactive exhibit has opened at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas featuring the jersey collection of Jock Smith and much more.


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UAE banks riding the eKYC wave
By Namir Kaissi
UAE launched its KYC Blockchain Platform in February 2020. This national ecosystem allows data sharing between licensing authorities and banks in the country, making it easier to open an account.
- UAE launched the first in the region KYC Blockchain Platform in February 2020, allowing sharing of data between licensing authorities and FIs
- Banks in the UAE have launched self-service channels so customers can update KYC remotely
- Banks in the country are collaborating with the Ministry of Interior to digitise their KYC journey
Know your customer (KYC) is a procedure followed by financial institutions (FIs) to identify and verify the details of new customers. This is aimed at preventing fraud and other financial crimes such as money laundering and terrorist financing. In placing KYC on top of their digital transformation journey, FIs are also able to onboard customers seamlessly and obtain information that helps them provide the best experience possible while adhering to regulatory requirements.
The current KYC process, however, entails a lot of manual documentation and verification. Information is collected from scanned physical documents or captured by devices. Validation is done manually through various sources, causing delay.
The UAE KYC Blockchain Platform was launched in February 2020 by Dubai Economy (Dubai’s Department of Economic Development) together with its founding partner banks. The main motivation is to create a national ecosystem that simplifies the sharing of verified KYC data between licensing authorities and FIs.
In 2020, Dubai Economy Department (DED) and Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) Authority formed a collaboration to strengthen the UAE KYC Blockchain Consortium. This made the consortium the first national corporate digital KYC (eKYC) platform in the region to speed up the customer onboarding process. The consortium included UAE banks that were part of the KYC blockchain project. These were: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADCB), Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), Emirates Islamic, Emirates NBD, HSBC Middle East, and RAKBANK. Mashreq Bank joined in 2022, making it seven banks in total. At present, the KYC blockchain platform maintains around 50% of corporate eKYC data in the country.
Banks in the UAE have been launching eKYC solutions in line with the government efforts to establish ecosystems. ADCB, a leading FI in the UAE developed a self-service channel to assist customers in updating their KYC documents remotely. Customers can access ADCB Personal Internet Banking (IB) on its website and the ADCB Mobile Internet Banking app (MIB) and update their Emirates ID and passport from their mobile or desktop.
Using optical character recognition (OCR) technology, information entered by the customer is validated against backend systems. If the details are accurate, a service request (SR) is created, and systems will be updated with the new details. This entire process is automated and can be completed in under five minutes with minimal risk compared with a previous manual process which took two days to complete. As of August 2022, 111,000 customers have updated their KYC details digitally, with 92% of customer records updated in a straight-through processing (STP).
On 15 October 2022 Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) announced partnership with the Ministry of Interior (MOI) to implement a digital KYC journey for its new customers. This will allow new customers to open an account without visiting a branch, through face recognition technology. In 2021, MOI launched its digital verification face gateway service which provides secure artificial intelligence-based (AI) solutions to verify customer identity remotely. Alternative financial services players such as Al Ansari Exchange was the first money transfer company in the country to implement a complete eKYC journey for onboarding in collaboration with MOI, using facial recognition.
The UAE is leading by example globally by implementing a blockchain ecosystem for KYC data sharing. Following in the footsteps of the Dubai Government’s strategy of building a paperless and digital ecosystem, DED is investing heavily in the country’s digital economy.
Exchange of data and information between FIs and banks allows for the creation of a safe and efficient ecosystem that reduces risks associated with fraud, money laundering, and financial crimes. By linking all KYC-related data and information, the UAE became a pioneer in the banking system and has encouraged banks and other FIs in the country to create their own KYC initiatives either in-house or by collaboration to offer a seamless experience for their customers.


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Traditional on-site photography providers such as DEI Global, MagicMemories, Picsolve and Sharingbox rely on fixed equipment, ongoing staff costs and on-site printed output. So Amsterdam, The Netherlands Smiler came up with a different approach. Freelance photographers can simply use the platform to roam the events, sell event photos officially attached to the venue, and allow clients to buy photos there or later online.
It has now raised an $8 million seed round led by Mosaic Ventures with Speedinvest, Dutch Founders Fund, PROfounders Capital and angel investors including Greg Marsh, who sold his onefinestay startup AccorHotels for £117 million.
The new funds will be used for expansion in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Italy.
Smiler, launched in May 2021, is an on-site photography marketplace used by freelancers, professional and enthusiast photographers. They show the customer a QR code to link it to the photos. Customers are then matched with their photo shoot, which they can then view and purchase.
This means that any photographer can then trade in a large number of public spaces around the world or one of Smiler’s partner centers. Now there are more than 9,000 photographers on his lists.
“It’s not just professional photographers who are smiling,” Smiler CEO and co-founder Kasper Middelkop said in a statement. “Many of them are young, talented photography enthusiasts who want to make money with their skills and passion. The earning potential is significantly higher than on a traditional gig economy platform with generous commission sharing, scalable control over how much and how often they want to work.”
Smiling places now include Manchester City Football Club, the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, Amsterdam’s ARTIS Royal Zoo and the Tower of London.
“At Mosaic, we are looking for exchange platforms that delight customers and create new economic opportunities for vendors,” said Bart Dessen, partner at Mosaic Ventures. “In the case of Smiler, creating vivid memories with loved ones for tourists and the new role of creator for photographers is a great example of technology that opens up interactions that were previously unavailable.”
Credit: techcrunch.com /


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Barcelona’s famous fair, the Mobile World Congress, is just about to begin. As always, possibly all the big names in mobile will join the party to show the latest and greatest coming out of their R&D. And while Samsung’s absence may represent a hit for the general vibe of the coming days, there will certainly be no shortage of new products and announcements.
So let’s dig out which smartphones gadgets are expected to be presented at this MWC:
LG at MWC 2017
Let’s start with the OEM that is likely to leave us with fewer surprises. LG has teased its G6 quite extensively now, and if that wasn’t enough, the phone has leaked a number of times already (we even leaked a couple images ourselves, as you can see below), and save for last minute surprises, the software is just about the only thing we have yet to see.
Inside the G6 there’s all you would expect — which makes it a dull announcement, to begin with, in spite of the somewhat interesting design. But don’t count on Qualcomm’s diamond point; Samsung has called dibs on the Snapdragon 835, so 2016’s 821 are all we’ll be left with.
Samsung at MWC 2017
You certainly won’t see the Galaxy S8 in the flash at Barcelona’s MWC — but a one-minute teaser will still manage to drive the hype train forward just enough for the firm to keep the enthusiasm high. And, in case you were interested, its Tab S3 tablet is also set to see the light of day, so that hardcore Samsung fans won’t be left completely empty-handed.
Sony at MWC 2017
Sony is a bit of a wildcard, honestly. Rumor has it that the company plans to launch a successor to last year’s Xperia X, whose line also debuted at Barcelona’s MWC. We don’t know how many phones they will have on display, or exactly what kind of device they intend to launch; between the Z5 Premium, X Performance and XZ Sony’s lineup has been astoundingly confusing as of late. There’s probably less information around than just about anyone else, and yet the Japanese firm is likely the one who needs to answer more questions.
BlackBerry at MWC 2017
The old smartphone glory is set to make (yet another) comeback to the Android realm, and, again, with a keyboard-sporting device. There’s nothing that past efforts from the Canadian company got necessarily wrong, but in 2016 (let alone this year) having a “good” product was not enough; especially if you want to sell it with a premium price tag. However, this doesn’t mean that they won’t have something interesting up their sleeve — we sure hope “Mercury” will do.
Nokia at MWC 2017
Speaking of old glories, it is impossible not to throw Nokia back into the mix: the original Finnish telecommunication giant — or what was left of it following Microsoft’s disastrous acquisition — has been exhumed by its partner HMD, which following the launch of its midrange Nokia 6 is seemingly set to make a more pompous (and western-centric) comeback at Barcelona’s MWC, as per their own pledge, possibly with an Android device that goes toe-to-toe with all the big names. All secrets are set to be revealed on Sunday.
Huawei at MWC 2017
Sunday is also Huawei’s day: the Chinese company, despite its notable size, has not followed the likes of Samsung and Apple and will use Barcelona’s show floor to unveil its latest flagship device, preemptively dubbed the P10. Along with that, rumors are talking about a bigger P10 Plus and considering the trends of recent years, we would be everything but surprised to see Huawei offering its customers some more choice (even as far as colors go). What we have seen so far has not impressed us, but we will obviously reserve our final judgment until the wraps are taken off the product.
Lenovo/Motorola at MWC 2017
On the theme of brands whose products have little left to tell us is Lenovo. Its subsidiary Motorola will take advantage of the MWC fair to launch its Moto G5 and G5 Plus siblings. Specs and images for both have leaked aplenty, so head over to our previous articles if you want to learn more.
HTC at MWC 2017
There has been no official word from the Taiwanese OEM about a presence in one of the MWC pavilions, and considering that its “U” series has been announced less than a month ago, there is no reason why we should see them around. However, word on the street is that the company is to launch a “true” flagship, a successor to last year’s 10, and we may have our first glimpse at the fair. We don’t know as of yet but will keep you updated if we learn more.
We’ll be on the ground in Barcelona, so stay tuned for our coverage of MWC 2017!


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STOCKHOLM-- Sweden's L.M. Ericsson today announced its microelectronics subsidiary has licensed RISC processor technology from ARM Ltd. of Cambridge, England. Ericsson Microelectronics AB has licensed the ARM7DMI core for use in a range of communications products.
"Bluetooth and fast Internet access to the home are key applications for Ericsson, and ARM's proven processor technology will provide an efficient and scalable platform for our high-performance, low-power system-on-chip solutions targeting these markets," said Johan Tingsborg, vice president and general manager for Datacom ICs at Ericsson Microelectronics.
The Swedish company hopes to reduce the time it takes to introduce next-generation ICs for consumer communications products by reusing the ARM processor core across Ericsson, said Tingsborg.


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Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint has suspended all services in response to a $32 million hack. Of this $32 million, around $23 million belonged to customers and $9.2m to the exchange itself.
The hackers reportedly gained access to a hot wallet belonging to the exchange and managed to siphon off five cryptocurrencies with the other two being Litecoin, XRP, Bitcoin cash and Ether. Having $32 million worth of cryptocurrencies in hot wallet storage might seem to be foolhardy given the spate of attacks against online wallets owned exchanges. The company, however, assured traders that its cold wallet remains secure.
Following the attack, Bitpoint says it has halted all trading activities as well as deposits and withdrawals. The shares of Remixpoint, the company which owns Bitpoint exchange, dropped 19% as traders entered panic mode. Bitpoint joins the likes of Japanese exchanges Zaif and Coincheck, which both fell victim to hackers.
The latest attack means at least eight exchanges have now been subject to major hacks this year- the most recent being Singapore-based Bitrue, but the most-high profile undoubtedly being May’s $40m hack of Binance.
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Attorney general seeks to shut down credit repair firm
Posted October 23, 2008 10:28 p.m. EDT
Raleigh, N.C. — Attorney General Roy Cooper took legal action this week to try and shut down what he called a bogus credit repair company.
The state’s case against Life Changing Credit Repair Services was included in a nationwide sweep of cases against fraudulent credit repair outfits announced Thursday by the Federal Trade Commission.
“People trying to improve their credit need straight answers, not empty promises,” Cooper said. “We’ll continue to go after companies that make promises they don’t keep.”
Cooper filed suit Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court against Life Changing Credit Repair Services, which also does business as Life Changing Financials Company, and owner Anquella Davis. The suit claims the company violated state laws that ban charging an upfront fee for credit repair.
Cooper is asking the court to shut down the Raleigh-based company’s illegal operations and to order the company to pay refunds to consumers.
Consumers who need help managing debt and restoring their credit can check with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling at 1-800-388-2227.


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Hulu Reaches Nearly 40 Million Subscribers, Including 4 Million Hulu + Live TV Customers
As of the end of December, Hulu had 39.4 million subscribers, including 4 million with Hulu + Live TV. In 2020, Hulu added 9 million subscribers, while Hulu Live TV jumped 800K subscribers.
During the Disney Investor Day, Disney announced that Hulu had reached 38.8 million subscribers as of December 2nd. Disney previously announced that Hulu reached 36.6 million subscribers as the end of September, which included 32.5 million Hulu SVOD subscribers and 4.1 million Hulu Live TV subscribers. Much of that growth was likely from their Hulu Black Friday deal, which returned for the third year in a row.
Despite losing 100K subscribers on the quarter, Hulu Live TV ($65) maintains its lead as the largest Live TV Streaming Service. Part of the drop is likely due to the $10 increase of service and the loss of Fox Regional Sports Networks.
They are still ahead of YouTube TV, who announced they surpassed three million subscribers in their Q3 earnings report, while Sling TV was the third largest after they added 203K subscribers in Q3, giving them 2.458 million.
Philo last reported they were at 800K subscribers in November. Earlier this month, fuboTV ($65) reported they expect to exceed 545,000 subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter (72 percent year-over-year increase).
AT&T recently announced that AT&T TV NOW, which has since been shut down to new customers, finished the year at 656K subscribers.


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Foot Locker shares could rocket aloft subsequent year as shoes trends bottom in 2017, according to Canaccord Genuity, that upgraded a batch to buy from hold.
Calling a retailer’s attribute with Nike “strong and symbiotic,” researcher Camilo Lyon told clients that shoes trends are set to urge with postulated expansion in jaunty options.
“It was done extravagantly transparent to us that a company’s attribute with Nike is clever and symbiotic, and some-more importantly a stream assortment-led comp declines are cyclical, not structural,” Lyon pronounced in a note Friday. “We trust shoes trends, while still soft, are improving sequentially. Running continues to perform good as movement in Adidas (NMD, Tubular Shadow, EQT, UltraBOOST) and Nike (VaporMax, Air franchise) is not vanishing and allocations are increasing.”
A bloat in shoes sales during Foot Locker would positively be welcomed by a company. Shares have slid all year as news of a closer attribute between Nike and e-commerce hulk Amazon surfaced. The batch is down scarcely 40 percent this year, yet shares have rallied 42 percent in a past month.
The association achieved improved than approaching in a latest quarterly gain report, promulgation shares adult scarcely 30 percent in a singular day.
Lyon’s new $64 cost aim represents 44 percent upside from Thursday’s close. Though an rhythm in shoes trends was a crux of a analyst’s upgrade, Foot Locker’s improving digital height could also bode good for sales.
Shares of Foot Locker were adult 5 percent in late morning trading.
“The association is creation swell on rolling out a new digital e-commerce height along with a mobile app height and new point-of-sale technology,” Lyon said. “Following these rollouts, all e-commerce sites globally will be on one platform, all mobile apps will be on one platform, and all stores worldwide will be regulating a same point-of-sale system.”
A improved digital aspect would expected lead to larger prominence into consumer shopping patterns, quicker entrance to register as good as extended information analytics. Lyon remarkable that a association is employing scientists and third parties to investigate amicable information and renouned shopping trends.


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Congress ponders targeted cable ads
PHILADELPHIA - Cable operators will sit in the hot seat today as Congress reviews their plans to roll out targeted advertising amid fears that consumer privacy could be violated if the companies were to track and record viewing habits.
The House subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet will hold a hearing to look at new uses for the digital set-top boxes that control channels and perform other tasks on the TV screen. Cable companies plan to use them to collect data and target ads according to individual preferences.
"We have recently called on Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate cable's new interactive targeted TV ad system on both antitrust and privacy grounds," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.
He is concerned about Canoe Ventures, a consortium formed by the nation's six largest cable companies to oversee the rollout of targeted and interactive ads nationally. Chester worries that Canoe will track what consumers do in their homes.
Cable's goal is to take the Internet's success with targeted ads and transfer that to the TV medium. Thus, a household that watches a lot of Nickelodeon eventually could be targeted for theme park promotions.
Canoe said it has no plans this year to use set-top box data for ads. Instead, its first targeted ads would use demographic data collected by outside companies.
The hearing will also focus on how network operators track consumers online and through wireless networks.


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SentinelOne raises $200M from VCs in latest big cybersecurity round
Less than a year after landing $120 million in funding from a consortium led by Insight Partners, SentinelOne Inc. today announced that it has closed an additional $200 million funding round also led by Insight.
Other existing SentinelOne backers participated as well, including Vista Equity Partners, Tiger Global, Qualcomm Inc.’s venture capital arm and The Westly Group.
SentinelOne, now valued at more than $1.1 billion thanks to the new round, provides an endpoint protection platform that has been adopted by more than 3,500 companies. The software is designed to work in a broad range of environments. SentinelOne says it can protect employee laptops, connected devices, public cloud deployments and containerized workloads, among other digital assets.
The platform is capable of handling a large variety of threats as well. According to SentinelOne, its algorithms catch not just regular malware but also fileless attacks that weaponize a company’s existing applications. The startup also promises protection against lateral movements, incidents where a hacker tries to use an already breached system to access other endpoints, as well as zero-day vulnerabilities not known to the cybersecurity community.
Like many competing products, SentinelOne uses artificial intelligence under the hood to catch malicious behavior. But whereas other platforms usually send data about potential threats to the cloud for evaluation, the startup’s software does the analysis locally on the device on which it’s running. That allows it to keep looking for threats even when there’s no internet connection.
SentinelOne’s pitch of providing protection against a broad range of threats in a broad range of environments is evidently resonating with enterprises. The startup says its 3,500-plus customers include hundreds of Global 2000 firms and claims to have grown revenue by 104% in the past 12 months.
That’s lower than the 217% year-over-year sales jump SentinelOne reported after its previous funding round last year, but still represents a notable gain given the growth is from a bigger base. The company didn’t reveal absolute revenue numbers.
SentinelOne’s $200 million raise is the latest in a series of big-ticket funding rounds for cybersecurity startups. Earlier this month, Netskope Inc. raised $304 million from investors for its cloud security platform, while vulnerability detection provider Snyk Inc. joined the unicorn club in January thanks to a $150 million round led by growth equity firm Stripes.
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|By Khalis Rifhan
Singapore Armed Forces FC (SAFFC) officially announced several changes for the new S.League season on Sunday afternoon at its pre-season community fanfare, 'Warriors Football Carnival', which was held at Lot One shopping mall
The most significant change for Singapore's most succcessful professional football club was its new name - they will now operate under the name ‘Warriors FC’ from the 2013 season onwards, a move that is in line with the club’s plan to collaborate with a wider segment of stakeholders and sponsors.
While the club's mascot is the fierce and forceful rhinoceros, SAFFC has been synonymous with the ‘Warriors’ term emblazoned at the front of its jersey since the inception of the S.League in 1996.
Their home ground at Choa Chu Kang Stadium is also known as the ‘Warriors Arena’, after relocation from their old base at the Jurong Stadium.
Cries and echoes of ‘Warriors on the War path’ is regular heard at the stands from the Warriors faithful, who have seen their heroes win eight S.League titles, three Singapore Cups, two Charity Shields and one FA Cup over the years.
Also announced at the event was the signing of a new sponsorship agreement with new apparel sponsor Volume, a Japanese brand founded in 2006.
Under the new deal, Volume (as represented by Svolme, which is based in Singapore) will sponsor apparel for the footballers, trainers and staff for a period of two years.
Volume also designed the Warriors' kit for 2013, which was unveiled at the event as well. The navy blue home match jersey is a break from the traditional sky blue, symbolizing a fresh start for the club, while the away jersey remains white in color.
The club also introduced its new advisor, BG (R) Eric Tan Huck Gim, who is the managing director of Facilities Management, Singapore Sports Hub, UGL services and Premas Operations Ltd.
With 32 years of distinguished service in the armed forces as well as a wealth of experience in event organization in the sports industry, the Warriors hope he will be able to contribute significantly to the club's operations.


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Investors are keeping a careful eye on the recent rise in R&D spending (R&D). Tencent and SoftBank’s Vision Fund II are considered to lead investors in PatSnap because it raised the most recent funding of $300 million in its Series E round.
The Series E fundraising round included participation from Sequoia China, CITIC Industrial Fund (a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned CITIC Group), Shunwei Capital (founded by Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun), and the Vertex investing families’ Vertex Growth and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India.
Further, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, which is run by the Vertex family of investors, has put money into the business.
Increasing amounts of capital are being allocated to R&D by companies around the world in an effort to stay ahead of the competition. Therefore, tracking the ROI of R&D is becoming more important than ever.
Among these companies is PatSnap, which is a prime illustration of the type. One of the company’s founders, Jeffrey Tiong, got his start in the medical device industry more than a decade ago, where he learned the value of intellectual property and patents.
Tiong founded PatSnap in Singapore in 2007 with the goal of creating a unified database that would make it easier to do worldwide patent research.
Eventually, Tiong widened the scope of the business to encompass adjacent industries. Newer versions of PatSnap’s software are “innovation intelligence,” as described by Tiong.
To better aid firms in reviewing their R&D strategy, tracking competitors, and finding excellent partners, this software analyzes data surrounding scholarly articles, government R&D grants, and startup fundraising announcements.
While speaking about innovation, Tiong said, “what we found is that many firms treat innovation as a department, a function, or a key performance indicator.” According to our findings, “innovation is viewed as a crucial performance measure” by many businesses.
According to our findings, innovation ranks high on the list of critical success factors for many businesses.
Many companies are looking for people with the skills to research the technological landscape and find out if other companies are developing similar technologies. In today’s world, you can’t possibly accomplish anything without the help of a good friend.
PatSnap’s purchase was finalized after the founder of SoftBank and multimillionaire Masayoshi Son spoke with Tiong for slightly over a quarter of an hour.
Tiong remarked that Son “understands the importance of ideas, intellectual property, and innovation” because he invented and patented a technology that he sold for $1 million while still in his 20s as per PatSnap 300m series softbank wiggersventurebeat.
Tiong told TechCrunch that after obtaining the money, the valuation of PatSnap was “more than $1 billion,” though he would not specify a specific figure.
While the United States is PatSnap’s primary market, China’s growing patent application sector has become increasingly crucial in recent years.
In 1999, China only filed 276 patent applications with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In 2019, this figure was higher than that of the United States, at 58,990.
The Chinese market might be challenging for software as a service (SaaS) companies to break into since Chinese businesses are more hesitant to invest heavily in software than their Western counterparts. In China, PatSnap operates under the Zhihuiya label.
The company has a sizable base of pleased customers in China, which includes major retail chains, educational institutions, AI firms, and the pharmaceutical industry.
The possession of a big patent portfolio is no assurance that its owner is the foremost expert in the field of technology. Tiong made the interesting observation that compared to China, the United States devotes a larger percentage of its GDP to R&D.
Furthermore, he stated, “the quality of the patents in China is not as good, and many of them are incremental tweaks rather than ground-breaking inventions instagram management services.”
PatSnap has 700 workers in the US, EU, Canada, Japan, and China, and the company claims to have customers in more than 50 countries. Tesla, General Electric, Siemens, Dyson, PalPal, Spotify, and Megvii are just some of the well-known companies with which the company has done business.
The newly acquired capital will be used to fund the company’s efforts to expand product development, enhance existing services, expand international sales, and invest in its staff SMM Agency.


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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Bakersfield is getting into the Christmas spirit as Christmas Town officially opened at Pioneer Village at the Kern County Museum on Saturday.
The drive-thru event consists of a mile-long series of holiday lights and displays with a chance to wave at Santa and take a quick picture with him by your car.
“When we realized going to alter our situation we doubled the number of lights, we doubled the number of displays, we doubled our light show…we have approximately 5 million lights through the decorations,” said event organizer Jessica Barr. “Pretty much anything we could put a light on, we put a light on it.”
Christmas Town is available through Jan. 3 Sunday through Thursday from 5:30-9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5:30-10 p.m. It will be open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Admission per regular vehicle is $25 and $50 per limo or passenger van. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit christmastown.net.


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Clipper Logistics PLC (LON:CLG) said it experienced “unprecedented levels of activity” in its logistics operations in both the UK and continental Europe over the Black Friday and Christmas trading periods.
In a trading update, the firm said that over November and December revenues for its logistics business were 50% higher year-on-year, with “strong growth” in both its e-commerce and non e-fulfilment services, continuing what Clipper said was a strong performance in the first half of its financial year.
The company also noted that it has fulfilled its one-billionth item of personal protective equipment (PPE) ordered online through a portal established with eBay in spring last year, adding that the service has now been beyond local health care providers including GP surgeries and nursing homes to educational and other communal establishments.
While Clipper said the additional revenues “will not necessarily have a proportionate impact on operating profit” given its contract mechanisms, it said the activity levels provided it with “an excellent level of confidence in the year ahead” and that it is continuing to enjoy a strong pipeline of new business opportunities.
“Our strategic positioning in supporting the online trading of retailers both in the UK and Europe places us in a strong position to continue to deliver excellent returns to our shareholders. I am immensely proud of the ability of our teams across the business to continue to support our customers’ exceptional growth. The strength of both our underlying markets and our new business activity provide us with an excellent level of confidence in the year ahead”, Clipper executive chairman Steve Parkin said in a statement.
In a note on Wednesday, analysts at house broker Shore Capital said the update was “highly positive” and they saw “scope to the upside” of their current revenue forecasts for the company’s 2021 financial year.
“Clipper is well placed strategically in the UK e-commerce market and has an opportunity to help replicate its success in the fragmented European market. Whilst the valuation metrics look fulsome, we believe that this is a quality growth story and would anticipate further outperformance, given the positive trading update”, the broker added.


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Excited to make an appearance on “The Wendy Williams Show,” Ivanka Trump sat down for Tuesday’s (December 13) taping in New York City.
The put-together daughter of Donald Trump and Ms Williams chatted away about everything from tabloids to debates to “Celebrity Apprentice” to trendy stockings to shoes to marriage to baby and much more.
Last night, Trump and husband Jared Kushner attended the opening of her Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry store at a new venue in SoHo.
Of the collection, Ivanka told press, “My collection pays homage to the past while embracing the future, which is exactly how SoHo has reinvented itself. I find SoHo’s trademark cast iron architecture and buildings to be remarkably inspiring and look forward to being in a neighborhood with such invigorating energy.”


text: We've got two updates on restaurants in Jamaica Plain. We're going to have a new one in a beloved spot in Hyde Square, and another restaurant that shutdown due to COVID, announced it's not going reopen. The well-liked Mike & Patty's breakfast spot and sandwich shop has applied for a license to open at 388 Centre St., which was once home to the beloved Sorella's restaurant until it closed in 2019. The news was first report by Boston Restaurant Talk. This will be Mike & Patty's first dine-in restaurant, according to Eater Boston, as its locations in Bay Village and Somerville are just takeout.


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AndaSeat signs as exclusive gaming chair partner of Fnatic
Today we’re excited to officially announce our partnership with AndaSeat, and with it the unveiling of the Fnatic Edition gaming chair. Through this strategic partnership, Fnatic players will now be equipped with AndaSeat’s latest ergonomic technology that will empower them to game in comfort, whether playing with friends, taking part in practice sessions, or competing at the highest level.
On the partnership, Fnatic CEO and Founder Sam Mathews said, “At Fnatic, our goal is to seek out, level up and amplify every gamer on the planet, and with AndaSeat we have found the perfect partner to achieve this through the creation of the Fnatic Edition Anda Seat chair. Whether you’re competing at the highest level or gaming casually from home, comfort is something that is key to maximising your gaming experience and success, and we’re excited to bring Anda Seat’s excellence in ergonomic technology to both our players and our fans across the globe.”
Founded in 2007, AndaSeat has been the exclusive chair sponsor of China National Football team and China National Volleyball team, quickly becoming an indispensable brand in traditional sport. With the growth of the esports industry, AndaSeat has shifted towards gaming chair solutions to players and gaming industry professionals alike, offering a more comfortable playing experience thanks to their leading ergonomic technology.
Zhou Lin, CEO & Founder of AndaSeat, said, “AndaSeat is proud to bring our ergonomic technology to support Fnatic’s excellence in their way of world championships and their vision of combining channels through which young people communicate with the world’s leading and forward-thinking brands. At AndaSeat, we aim to provide professional, durable and ergonomic chair offerings that empower gamers to benefit from this technology. It plays an increasing role in keeping esports players healthy during their daily high intensity training. The integration of AndaSeat chairs into Fnatic teams is an important step for our long-term partnership, and our commitment demonstrates an increasing maturity in the adoption of professional gaming chairs for gamers.”
The Fnatic Edition gaming chair makes use of AndaSeat’s smooth bonded, scratch and stain resistant technology and high-density one piece foam, contouring to the shape of the user, coupled with a precision manufactured steel frame for the ultimate sitting experience.
The AndaSeat Fnatic Edition gaming chair is open for pre-order from 6th May with a shipping date from 15th July 2020.


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Twitter is thinking about dropping its very limiting 140-character quota for tweets in an effort to build a larger audience, says a new report. It might come in the form of a product announcement or some changes to the way in which the elements of a tweet add up to the final character count. If the company is indeed planning such a move, it will put an end to all those valid complaints about the cap on tweet lengths.
While Twitter has yet to officially comment on the matter, several sources are apparently familiar with it already. According to the story, the idea has been doing the rounds internally for years. Executives are rumored to have been discussing the possibility of allowing longer tweets by not including links and user names in the 140-character count. The hope is that the site might shape up more appropriately into the micro-blogging service it’s supposed to be instead of a place to shout out 140-word headlines or declarations.
According to a post on Re/code, interim CEO of Twitter, none other than co-founder Jack Dorsey, is claimed to be supportive of such a move. The major hurdle the service will have to face comes in the form of longtime fans who resent tweaks to how it functions. If you recall the scandalized reactions to ‘favorited’ tweets being shown as retweets by default, Highlights and Instant Timelines, you’ll know what we mean. But investors in the company are baying for a healthily growing user base.
So far, Twitter has upped the character cap on Direct Messages to 10000, and a ‘retweet with comment’ option is also available to folks. Even if the social network of sorts does ditch its 140-character limit for tweets, it’s still got a long way to go before it can hope to take the fight to Facebook.


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LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. fraudster Bernard Madoff used his London-based company to “warehouse” huge amounts of money stolen from the Ponzi scheme and buy luxury items for himself, a court heard on Wednesday.
The liquidators of UK-based Madoff Securities International Limited (MSIL) began a civil case in London’s High Court on Monday against defendants including Madoff’s brother Peter and his son Andrew, as well as Stephen Raven, chief executive of the UK unit, and Bank Medici founder Sonja Kohn.
The case by the liquidators, who are trying to recover $80 million, centers on loans between Madoff’s London and New York operations and payments by the UK firm to Kohn for research, and the extent of the liability of the directors of the London unit.
Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence for his Ponzi scheme, which was revealed in 2008 and which is estimated by Irving Picard, the trustee seeking money for Madoff’s victims, to have led to $17.3 billion of investor losses.
“Mr. Madoff was warehousing very, very large amounts of stolen money in his directors’ account in London,” said Pushpinder Saini QC, representing the liquidators.
“The London directors allowed him to use the directors’ account as his personal bank account in London. (That) assisted him in making purchases of luxury items using MSIL’s accounts.”
Saini said claims by directors of the UK firm not to know about Madoff’s fraud “doesn’t get them off the hook” as they “ought to ask questions” about the firm’s payments.
“Between 2005 and 2008 the directors were happily sending it (the money) over to New York where it was used for fictitious T-bill trading,” he said.
“So absurd was the situation that Mr. Madoff had to make payments to the (UK) company so they could pay him the interest (on the loans).”
In 2009 Reuters revealed that Madoff had moved nearly $160 million of his own assets to his British-based firm in 2007, via the allotment of two sets of new shares in the firm.
In a statement on Tuesday Raven’s lawyer said, “As far as the London operation was concerned it was a legitimate proprietary trading business, well capitalised with what the directors believed was a small part of Mr. Madoff’s wealth, undertaking an honest trading business.
“The claims that Mr. Raven and his co-directors breached their duties to the company are plainly wrong and are based solely on the wisdom of hindsight.”
Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said in 2009 that it had begun investigating Madoff’s British operations but it dropped the probe the following year.
Saini also said on Wednesday that payments made to Kohn for research were “hidden from auditors” and that the research she provided was “worthless” and a “sham”.
Kohn has in the past denied knowledge of Madoff’s fraud and claimed instead to be a victim.
The case comes as Picard battles in the courts to recover money for victims and stop Madoff-related litigation that he believes interferes with his own. According to his website, Picard has recovered $9.3 billion for victims.
The High Court case is scheduled to continue on Thursday.
Reporting by Laurence Fletcher; Editing by Toni Reinhold


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Booming Market For Organic Labels
This entry was posted on January 14, 2013.
Exponential Increase In Number Of Eco-Labels
Labels denoting the organic or environmentally friendly nature of products are a hot commodity. According to the Organic Monitor, which recently examined the burgeoning market for green labels and certifications, the market for such labels is undergoing an enormous boom.
Organic Monitor said labels for organic foods and drinks represent the bulk of a nearly $75 million market for eco-labels. Overall, there are more than 200 seals and logos for qualified products. The research also noted non-GMO labels, water footprint labels and carbon emission labels are gaining popularity.
Increase In Labels Happening Too Fast? Organic Monitor cautioned that even though the market for organic labels is rapidly expanding, it could lead to some inconveniences for customers. The research found the exponential increase in labels has created problems for consumers who are overwhelmed with the sheer number of labels that seem to indicate the same thing.
Organic Monitor said there needs to be better cohesion between label makers and certifiers in order to prevent consumers from souring on eco-friendly labels. Collaboration is also needed to spur more food producers into working toward achieving an organic label.
Request your FREE instant quote today.


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Sapphire Radeon HD5670 1GB DDR3 | GMA X4500 Built in with Gigabyte G41 Motherboard
Samsung SyncMaster 591s 15"
Windows 7 Ultimate
King Arthur 2
Paradox unveils fantasy, role-playing RTS
Paradox interactive has revealed King Arthur II with a trailer.
The role-playing RTS game will feature a new and dark fantasy setting with King Arthur now taking on the mantle the Maimed King and trying to mend a broken land.
Expect large scale battles with bigger armies than seen in the predecessor that can be used to defeat more powerful foes.
"We are excited to begin King Arthur II with the Paradox publishing team," said Zoltán Pozsonyi, Producer of King Arthur II for Neocore.
"We have every intention of testing the limits in the sequel. With an extraordinary new plot and insane new battles, our community's expectations will be blown away."
"We couldn't be more thrilled to add King Arthur II to our lineup of exceptional upcoming titles. From the early development that has taken place, we know this newest title will more than live up to its predecessor," said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive.
Have a look at the trailer to see whether it's for you:
Like my Facebook page Gaming Newz for new gaming news updates.


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Coffee Day Enterprises has called a board meeting on Wednesday to discuss the way forward, a top-level company insider said.
Coffee Day must sell CCD out if it wanted to keep the brand value intact at this time of uncertainty, said a coffee industry veteran, who asked not to be named. “There’s a lot of uncertainty in the business as of now but given its scale of operations, it is a very attractive buy for any large organisation looking at coffee or a PE firm with scale,” this person added.
Coca-Cola, which was in exclusive talks last month to acquire a significant stake in CCD, may be looking to revise its offer. Talks with ITC had begun after the exclusivity period with the American cola giant ended mid-July, another executive said.
“ITC is unlikely to go ahead, and Coca-Cola would be a key contender. Coca-Cola wants to hedge its bets and reduce dependence on its core soft drinks business which has slowed down, and is perhaps looking at global leadership in the coffee business,” this executive said.
Siddhartha was seeking a valuation of Rs 8,000-10,000 crore from Coca-Cola, this person said.
Coca-Cola didn’t comment on ET’s questions on deal talks.
ITC receives enquiries from market participants on an ongoing basis, which are suitably evaluated, a spokesperson for the diversified conglomerate said, adding: “One such enquiry was received from an intermediary on Cafe Coffee Day. However, no progress has been made on the matter.”
Jaspal Sabharwal, a former partner at private equity firm Everstone Capital and cofounder of online food insights platform TagTaste, said CCD might not be a right fit for a PE fund. “A new PE fund may not be up for this game but a large Indian non-strategic or a global strategic player with strong balance sheet could come forward,” he said. “It is exactly what
Meanwhile, the company insider cited earlier said at Wednesday’s board meeting, Siddhartha’s wife and the directors would discuss and take a call on what next to do. “It will be the family’s decision to keep the company or sell it and nothing is decided yet,” he said.
A board meeting was held on Tuesday as well, but was inconclusive as most members could not attend it, this person added. A senior executive at Coffee Day Enterprises said Siddhartha’s wife and son were holding the reins in his absence.
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Universal Furniture and Coastal Living will debut their first collaboration, Escape, at the Fall High Point Market.
Italian mattress producer Magniflex has announced the debut of its Nuvola Collection at the upcoming High Point Market.
Mega Motion, a resource for power lift chairs and other mobility products, is unveiling Verde-Tec, an innovative new fabric on multiple models at the October High Point Market.
Mattress Firm has officially filed for bankruptcy, according to CNBC.
Motion upholstery resource Bradington-Young has announced a 75,000-square-foot expansion to its Hickory manufacturing facility, located at 4040 10th Ave Drive.
The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation has announced a Pinning Ceremony for its 2018 inductees on Sunday, Oct. 14, from Noon to 12:30 p.m., at the Wall of Fame in the Lobby of Furniture Plaza.
Mega Motion, a subsidiary of Pride Mobility Products Corporation, has announced a partnership with Susan G. Komen, the world's largest breast cancer organization.


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HORSHAM, PA — (09-28-21) (PR-JRL CHARTS) — The Premium Thruster Full Automatic Sex Machine from Whipsmart is now in stock, and is now shipping through Xgen Products. “This Premium Thruster Full Automatic Sex Machine from Whipsmart is really something,” said Andy Green, President of Xgen Products. “Whipsmart has always been a popular brand within the [...]
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HORSHAM, PA — (09-08-21) — ZOLO enters the P-Spot stimulation market with two new vibrators, and they are now shipping from Xgen Products. Intensify your anal play with the ZOLO P-Spot Beaded Vibe, a massager that provides the ultimate coverage and stimulation with six vibration patterns and five vibration speeds. Featuring a curved, rounded tip that [...]
HORSHAM, PA — (03-23-21) — Xgen Products is now stocking three new pleasure products vibrators from OVO Lifestyle Toys. “We’re excited to have new items from OVO Lifestyle Toys available,” said Andy Green, President of Xgen Products. “These new vibes are each unique in their own way and come in at a great price point.” [...]
HORSHAM, PA — (12-31-20) — Xgen Products is looking forward to another amazing Valentine’s Day season and is kicking off 2021 with their annual free shipping offer to all XGEN customers in the United States. “Our customers really appreciate our free shipping promotion, and we love offering it,” said Andy Green, President of Xgen Products. “With [...]
HORSHAM, PA — (12-29-20) — Xgen Products' Baci Lingerie has added to their award-winning White Label Collection, four new styles of strappy harnesses, and they are now shipping from Xgen Products just in time for the upcoming Valentine’s Day rush. “We’re thrilled to have new items in the Baci White Label Collection,” said Andy Green, [...]
HORSHAM, PA — (12-02-20) — Powerhouse Award-winner of male masturbators, ZOLO, release six new Zolo Cock Rings, expanding their reach into the cock ring space with six new items that are now shipping from Xgen Products. “We are very excited to be introducing the ZOLO Rings collection,” said Andy Green, President of Xgen Products. “The [...]
HORSHAM, PA — (09-22-20) — Xgen Products is now shipping its new Maliboo Vibes, a collection of brightly colored vibrators that feature seamless lines and soft, smooth surfaces. “The Maliboo collection is a great new addition to the Xgen roster of brands,” said Andy Green, president of Xgen Products. “With 15 different vibration patterns and [...]
HORSHAM, PA — (09-15-20) — Xgen Products, is currently offering two high-tech strokers from Zolo: the Zolo Tornado and Zolo Automatic Blowjob. The ZOLO Tornado is a next generation USB rechargeable full shaft male masturbator that uses stimulating tornado technology to provide the ultimate pleasure! “We are very excited to be releasing new Zolo items,” said [...]
HORSHAM, PA — (09-03-20) — Xgen Products, the premier manufacturer of apparel and accessories for Halloween is launching a new campaign for Halloween this year entitled “Halloween @ Home.” “Halloween during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, is going to be a little different this year” said Andy Green, President of Xgen Products. “Just because everyone [...]
HORSHAM, PA (08-11-20) — Xgen Products expands with its new Envy Menswear XXL size for Men. The new new offerings are available on 14 best-selling styles from Envy. “We’ve had numerous requests over the years for larger Envy Menswear sizes,” said Andy Green, president of Xgen Products. “We took some of our best-selling style and [...]


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CentOS 5.6 released today
- On Distrowatch <http://distrowatch.com/> today (9-APRIL-2011) is:
Karanbir Singh has announced the release of CentOS 5.6, a Linux
distribution built from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5.6: "We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS
5.6 for i386 and x86_64 architectures. CentOS 5.6 is based on the
upstream release EL 5.6 and includes packages from all variants
including Server and Client. All upstream repositories have been
combined into one, to make it easier for end users to work with.
CentOS 5.6 is the sixth update to the CentOS 5 distribution series;
it contains a lot of bug fixes, updates and new functionality."
Downloads are here:


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Beating the pirates to welcome an exciting new age of video streaming.
The EFL’s brand spanking new overseas live streaming service has been welcomed by Latics fans stationed in far-flung corners of the globe. Offering up to 46 live Wigan Athletic matches from the 2017/18 season, it’s just what expatriated Ticspeople have been clamouring for.
Internet livestreaming has been steadily growing in popularity over the past decade. In 2009, England’s World Cup qualifier with Ukraine was broadcast exclusively via the Internet for a fee of £4.99 (£9.99 if bought less than three days prior to the game). Approximately 250,000 people paid to access the stream, leading to an estimated viewing figure in excess of 500,000.
According to the Telegraph, some viewers complained about streaming speed and lack of licensed premises screening the game.
However, the industry has progressed hugely in the intervening 8 years, with broadcasters such as BT Sport now streaming certain matches for free in full HD quality live on their website and YouTube.
In 2016, Wayne Rooney’s testimonial became the first professional football match to be shown live on Facebook. And in the same year, the Champions League and Europa League Finals were broadcast live on YouTube.
As much as broadcasters like to deny it, mobile technology is slowly killing live television, and sports streaming piracy is a growing problem.
Earlier this year, the FA launched its biggest crackdown on piracy, targeting distributors of modified boxes and enabled devices. According to the Guardian, more than half of young people watch illegal streams, eschewing traditional subscription TV models in favour of web and mobile-based content.
Some will view iFollow as complete and utter acceptance of these facts.
The video streams are currently available for international fans only. But should they prove successful, could we eventually see those streams introduced to the UK? In the meantime, Tuesday night Beambacks in the South Stand should keep Latics fans sufficiently satiated.


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Huawei on Tuesday highlighted the strides it has made in the premium smartphone segment in South Africa.
The Shenzhen-based mobile and technology group said in a press briefing in Sandton that it has grabbed a 16.3% market share locally for all smartphone devices, while for premium devices ($600), market share has improved to 13.8%.
A previous Effective Measure South Africa Mobile Report for 2017 indicated that Samsung remains the dominant mobile brand locally, with a 40% market share, while Apple is second at 10%, followed by Huawei at 9%.
Globally, the operator commands a 10% market share for all smartphones, having shipped 153 million devices in 2017, up from 139 million in 2016. For premium devices, its market share is up to 8.4%, from less than 4% in 2016.
Huawei general manager for SA consumer business, Zhao Likun, noted that sales for the Mate 10 are up 66% from the Mate 9.
Likun said that consumers want more innovation in their technology which is why the group was proud to deliver the world’s first Artificial Intelligence powered devices through its Mate 10 series.
The GM noted that Huawei is also leading the charge in 5G, and will launch its first commercial 5G phone in 2019.
Looking ahead, Likun said that the company will look at consolidation in the more affordable market in South Africa. On Monday, Huawei launched the Honor 7X and 9 Lite, affordable smartphones in SA.


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Did this show up in the crystal balls?
Auction giant eBay announced that it will be banning the sale of items classified as "metaphysical" in September, putting an end to literally thousands of auctions for magical gryphon's feet, wands of summoning, amulets, potions and more.
How exactly do you return a "Vampire Mistress Sex Spirit" or a "Cash and Financial Windfall Casting Spell" after all? That's part of the problem and a situation that arises too often on eBay, according to the company -- and now it's taking a stand, part of what eBay labelled routine site maintenance.
The site said that the decision came after "a large number of misclassified items and eBay policy violations" that often led to "issues that can be difficult to resolve." In other words, the site had difficulty dealing with intangible items -- meaning hexes, spirits, conjuring and more -- that disgruntled magicians in training were struggling to return.
Among the items that will be banned as of August 30, 2012: "advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic; prayers; blessing services; magic potions; healing sessions; work from home businesses and information; wholesale lists, and drop shop lists."
However, eBay doesn't seem completely ready to let go of their voodoo. eBay spokeswoman Johnna Hoff told Wired that "items that have a tangible value for the item itself and may also be used in metaphysical rites and practices (for instance, jewelery, crystals, incense, candles, and books) are allowed in most cases."
The changes have perturbed a few customers. Over 1,000 tarot card-readers and potion-drinkers have signed a "Don't ban our psychics on eBay" petition. The site's metaphysics department is estimated to lose about 100,000 products in its online, world-wide inventory.
Let's hope that eBay's metaphysics fanatics don't put a hex on the site.


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While a US jury deliberates over whether Samsung copied the design of the iPhone and iPad, a court in Samsung’s home country of South Korea has ruled in Samsung’s favor. It was a split decision in which both companies won sales bans against older versions of each other’s products. But the question of whether Samsung copied the look and feel of Apple’s iPhone was resolved, with the court ruling Friday that Samsung did not copy Apple's products.
“It is not possible to assert that these two designs are similar based only on the similarity of those features,” the Seoul Central District Court said today, referring to the rectangular shape with rounded corners of the devices in question, the Associated Press reported. The court also said Samsung’s application icons are not similar to the ones used in Apple’s iPhone.
Samsung hailed the decision. "Today's ruling affirmed our position that one single company cannot monopolize generic design features," the company said, according to IDG News Service.


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Five years ago, when Algolia was founded, its founding duo were very much grounded in the French startup ecosystem. Nicolas Dessaigne and Julien Lemoine had both recently quit roles at Exalead, a software company whose alumni, known for their phenomenal success, have been dubbed the ‘Exalead Mafia’.
Following the pair’s graduation from Y Combinator’s winter 2014 class, however, Algolia’s expansion outside France came quickly. Despite retaining a large Parisian presence, Dessaigne and Lemoine moved their headquarters to San Francisco. They hold a lot of affection for their home country and its development. But the need to go global, for a company fighting the stiffest opposition around, was huge.
In 2016 93% of all Internet experiences started with search. When the topic of online searches arises, though, few look beyond Google. Algolia, though, does something different. Its search-as-you-type service targets individual online players via APIs that focus on “the three pillars of search”: speed, relevance and design.
Algolia did not even begin as a search-as-a-service offering at all, but rather a software development kit for providing faster searches in mobile apps. But Dessaigne and Lemoine soon realized that the constraints of smartphone technology were holding them back.
“We simply couldn’t apply the traditional state-of-the-art search engine to this use case,” Dessaigne tells Red Herring. “We had to reinvent search. The hardware limitations led us to make completely different tradeoffs than what we would have done on servers–things we actually would never have thought of without the constraints of mobile.
“We later pivoted to SaaS and a server-based approach, but the choices made for mobile helped to differentiate the product and made it the best possible fit for user-facing search,” he adds. “It’s today a big reason for our success.”
Dessaigne claims that to compete with Google and others, Algolia had to think global from day one. The biggest market was–and still is–the US. Even to think locally would be to lose the company’s edge. Algolia is now in 47 locations across 15 regions with over 1,600 clients including Medium, Periscope and VEVO.
This year the company plans to open offices in the UK and Australia. Its founders’ vision appears to have paid off.
To date the company has won over $21 million from three investment rounds, led by some of the world’s best known funds including 500 Startups, Accel Partners and Point Nine Capital. But it wasn’t just money that attracted Algolia stateside. The San Francisco API ecosystem, says Dessaigne, was just as, if not more, important.
“API became the building blocks of new software,” he says. “While some API were already available in 2012, like Amazon S3, Twilio, Stripe, there were not yet the mainstream approach to build software.
“Today the shift has happened for a significant part of the market and is actually faster than we anticipated,” Dessaigne adds. “We expect the big majority software development to use APIs in a few years.”
Various APIs are catered to by Algolia, and it is available across ten coding languages. The company provides 99% of its searches in under 35 milliseconds. This matters: 100ms of latency can cause Amazon to lose 1% of its sales, for example–500ms costs Google 10% of its traffic. The blink of an eye is roughly 180ms.
But speed is only one part of the puzzle. When you’re an upstart facing off against one of the world’s corporate juggernauts, it’s vital to retain customer trust at all times. With that in mind Algolia has transformed its service level agreements (SLAs)–and it’s a model others are closely scrutinizing.
Algolia believes it is possible to assure clients 99.99% uptime. This is achieved in three ways. “First, we built the first distributed search network (DSN)–a CDN for your search experience–which means we can deliver search results in under 35ms anywhere your customers are,” Dessaigne says.
“Second, we host your search securely in three different servers in three different data centers from up to three different providers, meaning that we are ready for the most unexpected of outages,” he adds. “Last, we developed a DNS fallback system in case of DDoS attacks, which means that if we detect DNS latency, we can fallback to a different DNS.”
Buoyed by its funding and big-name clients, Algolia is looking to another year of fast expansion. And as France’s tech ecosystem is boosted by the likes of Station F and TheFamily, it has no plans to abandon its hometown, whose VC system is “growing fast.
“French VCs are becoming bolder, investing internationally and in more ambitious projects, and US VCs are getting much more involved in local rounds of funding,” says Dessaigne. “All for the best for entrepreneurs.”
And all the better for Algolia, the Exalead mafia and a new generation of French entrepreneurs trying to change the world–even if they run up against goliaths like Google. Dessaigne and Lemoine are living proof that Parisian tech, like its culture, can go truly global.


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Honda TT Legends YouTube Documentary Back in 2012, Gaucho Productions filmed a behind-the-scenes look at[...]
2011 British Superbike
It was all about the American at the Round six of the 2011 British Superbike Championship. Samsung Crescent Suzuki’s John Hopkins first became the first American to ever take a pole position at Snetterton on Saturday.
2011 IoM TT News
British Superbike regular Simon Andrews has been confirmed as the latest high profile newcomer aiming to make their Isle of Man TT debut in 2011.
Andrews, the Englishman, is already set to contend the 2011 British Superbike EVO Championship on the green and white Kawasaki ZX 10-R of Liverpool-based BSB team, PR Racing.


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Now live! Xbox One Gamescom press conference live-blog and video
The best games of 2015 so far…
Dark Horse is giving away free digital copies of the entire Mass Effect comic line in a strictly time-limited offer.
Mass Effect: Invasion headlines
Mass Effect: Invasion Latest
Mass Effect digital comics free today


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BOTETOURT COUNTY, Va. (WFXR) — The Botetourt County Historical Museum is hosting back-to-back ribbon-cutting ceremonies on Monday in honor of its new location and the opening of AvenueBlack, a new boutique.
Officials from the Botetourt County Chamber of Commerce say the event will begin at AvenueBlack at 3 p.m. before moving a block away to the museum’s new location at 5 p.m. on Monday, July 25.
AvenueBlack is located at 22 South Roanoke Street in Fincastle, and the Botetourt County Historical Museum’s new location is at 26 East Main Street also in Fincastle.
The boutique carries clothing, decor, and accessories in a newly renovated historical Fincastle building.
“There is a rich history to the Town of Fincastle, and I am honored to join a growing business community
where people from all over the region – and beyond – can shop and explore,” AvenueBlack owner Ranelle Simmons said.
Following the open house for the boutique, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. down the street for the Botetourt County Historical Museum. Commerce officials tell WFXR News that the museum has been closed for months while their new location was renovated, and artifacts were moved to the new location.
“Botetourt County Historical Museum is excited to finally reopen in our new location. It’s been a real time of transition for us, but we couldn’t be happier in our new space and look forward to welcoming visitors and researchers from all over once again,” Executive Director Lynsey Allie said.
County officials are inviting everyone to celebrate “mixing the new with the old” on Monday in celebration of Fincastle’s newest attractions.
“It’s not often we have an opportunity like this to blend a new retail business, with the reopening of a historical museum that has been in town since 1966. It sets a great example of opportunities that exist in the area that bring tourism to Botetourt and retail businesses, encouraging our communities and visitors to shop local,” Botetourt County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Khari Ryder said. “Bringing businesses and organizations together to strengthen the community is what we do here at the Chamber and we’re happy to be a part of this celebration right here in Fincastle.”


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Is it possible that Mercedes-Benz, a long-standing car manufacturer in the industry, can get rid of the liquid that has been working on the automobile industry for years.
The German slogan Mercedes-Benz has shown that it will stop producing gasoline and diesel cars by 2039 as part of a bold plan to significantly increase the production of electric cars.
Important certificate and step ahead:
“Let’s be clear what this means for us: a fundamental transformation of our company into less than three productive cycles,” says First Calineus, Daimler CEO. “Mercedes-Benz will use the 2039 ambition to get out of the comfort zone and move on, Bringing new technologies closer together and embracing change. ”
“As a company founded with the help of engineers, we are in agreement with an era that can also help engineer a better future,” he says, “Our path to sustainable mobility is innovation – in a holistic manner along the full cost chain.”
This clearly shows the future direction of the company towards the production of Mercedes-Benz electric cars, because in the coming years will know the growing demand for this type of environmentally friendly cars.
Through the 2025 each car sold by the luxury logo can have a little form of electrical assistance, even if the system is a light hybrid only 48 volts. By 2030, Mercedes is setting up half-car plans to become hybrid electric motors or hybrid engines.
Innovation and orientation for the future:
Calenius encouraged coverage makers to set tough targets but to allow innovation to grow in the race to achieve these goals, he says in this context: “We inspire the cover makers to pave the way for technological neutrality. Let us fix the goal, but not the way to get it.”
The use of Daimler to place a descending date on conventional internal combustion engines – and similarly by adhering to emissions-free plants and clean electricity to their engines – is one of the boldest brands.
While most of them are eager to talk about intensifying electric or partial payments, few have set a date for fossil fuels.
Waiting for what will happen in the future, there is no doubt that the direction of Mercedes-Benz to produce electric cars is a step forward, in view of the global car market is fierce competition and rapid development.


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Over the past few years, New York has been hit by powerful waves of a maple syrup smell. It was first noticed in 2005 by the NYC centric blog Gothamist, then noted again twice in 2006, and in 2007, 2008, and twice this year. 30 Rock even wrote it into a show in 2007.
Each time the smell struck, different parts of the city would be inundated with the strong scent of maple syrup. After it was clear that the smell didn't mean anything bad was about to happen, New Yorkers just rolled with it, almost treating it like a celebrity sighting.
It turns out that the smell is coming from a factory in New Jersey that processes fenugreek seeds for food additives. Most of the worlds food flavoring labs and companies are located in New Jersey. In this case it turned out to be a company called Frutrom. When the wind is blowing just right — hard enough to push the smell across the river from Frutrom's facilities, but not hard enough to completely disperse it — New Yorkers walk around feeling like they're living in a International House of Pancakes.
The company isn't breaking any rules or regulations and there isn't much that can be done, so NYC Mayor Bloomberg has advised his constituents to get used to it. There are many, many things worse than the smell of maple syrup.


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GM says prices common shares at $33 each in IPO
DETROIT – General Motors said Wednesday it would price its common stock at $33 per share in an initial public offering that could be worth $23.2 billion. The IPO, to take place Thursday, will return GM to the New York Stock Exchange for the first time since June of last year, when it was booted off as it headed into bankruptcy protection.
The sale will draw the U.S. government closer to its goal of recouping the $50 billion it gave GM to help it avoid financial ruin.
Demand for GM shares is so strong that the company's bankers are likely to exercise options to sell a maximum number of shares. That means 550 million common shares would be sold by the government and other GM owners starting Thursday for a total value of $18.2 billion.
The government will sell 412 million shares and get $13.6 billion. It will still have about 500 million shares, or about 33 percent of GM. It would have to sell them for $53 a share, or $26.4 billion, for taxpayers to get back their $50 billion back.
At $18.2 billion, the common share sale would be the fifth-largest IPO in history. GM will also sell up to 100 million shares of preferred stock worth a total of $5 billion. The preferred and common shares combined would make the IPO worth $23.2 billion, which could be the largest IPO in history.


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Ahead of the Global luxury fashion house Chanel hosting their official fashion show for the season on March 9, 10.30 am on Paris time, BLACKPINK Jennie and BIGBANG’s G-Dragon have released their ambassador portraits on their respective social media accounts.
The show will have both of them as Korean ambassadors for the brand and they will be in attendance on that day.
Meanwhile, in the portraits, Jennie looks hot in a whole black look in a tweed dress, chain and leather belt, and drop earrings and her autograph is laid over the photo in red color.
Take a look:
And G-Dragon is seen wearing multiple rings, bracelets, and necklaces to give off his trademark maximalist chic vibe.
The show has hired renowned photographers, Inez and Vinoodh to photograph the two separately, for these ambassador portraits. And due to the pandemic, its attendees will instead be enjoying the show from the comfort of their own homes or local flagship stores.


text: Having beer outside on a warm summer night might be a favorite pastime for many. And here comes the 27th Qingdao International Beer Festival in east China’s Shandong Province on Friday, regarded as China’s biggest beer gala. Locals, as well as festival-goers, attended the opening event. A variety of beers in flavor and brands were presented at the festival. /Xinhua PhotoThe city of Qingdao intensely lives up to its reputation as the country’s capital of beer, where an average of 150 liters of beer is reportedly consumed per person annually.


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The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit to stop InBev’s proposed purchase Modelo of, which
The $20.1 billion deal would combine the #1 brewer in the US with the #1 import Corona. Now that is a lot of market share!
The government said the deal could lead to higher beer prices in this country because it would substantially reduce competition in the beer market.
InBev said this morning that they would fight in suit.
MillerCoors, the second-largest beer company, accounts for 29 percent of nationwide sales.


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Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG.
In most countries, small and medium enterprises are important contributors to economic welfare. This is the main reason why a digitalized trade system can open more opportunities to further SME growth.
In the wake of the ICC Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions (URDTT) due to publish next month in October, we explore the meaning of a digital trade transaction – underlying assumptions, regulatory framework and future expectations.
The TFG / Finastra’s tradecast will explore how corporates are reacting to new levels of volatility, and ultimately, how technology and innovation can help build inclusive, resilient global value chains.
The District Export Council of San Diego and Imperial Valley (SDIDEC) has sponsored the first workspace for ICC eRules guidelines for digital trade transactions.
Has digital trade finally arrived with the ICC eRules guidelines? John Dunlop explains how this might be true.
Deepesh Patel, Editor at TFG summarised the key themes discussed during ICC Mexico’s three-day virtual event on The Digital Future of Trade and Supply Chain Finance.
Bankers and traders can now access a fully comprehensive digital platform by VERIDAPT called AdaptSCF that ensures security, reliability and compliance in the digital trade finance world.
The need for trade finance digitization has never been clearer. In today’s pandemic-ravaged landscape, banks face multiple challenges, including the legislative shift to digital trade documents and growing regulatory scrutiny, changing customer behaviour and increasing competition in the form of trade finance investment funds.
Your morning coffee briefing from TFG. Goods barometer is nearly 10 points above the baseline value of 100 for the index and up 21.6 points year-on-year, reflecting the strength of the current recovery from COVID-19 crisis. ICC launches, ICC Trade Now, a suite of digital products and services to tackle the global trade finance gap. EU set to unveil digital wallet for post-Covid life
By understanding how paper documents work, we explore whether trace:original by Enigio, is an alternative way of approaching digital trade.
More than 90% cost savings could be possible from using distributed ledger technology to handle authoritative digital original documents
TFG is partnering up with the WTO to produce a ‘Trade Digitalization and MSME Financing’ publication. Take part in our short survey for the chance of winning a $100 voucher!
Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG. Talks between the UK and the EU on their future relationship continue without a breakthrough, and the UK government placed London and much of South East England under tier 4 restrictions.
Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG. UK-EU Brexit talks continue, with the UK prime minister Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen agreeing to extend talks on the future UK-EU relationship beyond the previously announced deadline of yesterday.


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Comcast takes first step towards streaming
Per Bloomberg, Comcast has negotiated rights from the owners of cable companies to broadcast their video services outside of its regional territories. The effort can be seen as a first step towards potentially building an over-the-top (OTT) TV streaming service one day that could compete with the likes of it's pay-TV competitors, primarily Dish Network's SlingTV and Apple Inc.'s DirectTV.
Why it matters: Comcast tells Bloomberg that in the short-term, this isn't a revenue-driving business model, but it's hard not to imagine a world in which Comcast wouldn't be thinking about moving into the streaming space. Per Nielsen, 29% of all U.S. homes own enabled smart TVs and 23% own an digital streaming device. By the end of last year, Sling TV is now being used in nearly two million households, according to comScore.


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Nestlé will explore strategic options for its US confectionery business, including a potential sale. The review covers the US market only and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Glencoe Capital Management, LLC acquired Urbana, Ohio-based Robert Rothschild Farm, a specialty food producer for more than 30 years, specializing in gourmet sauces, dips and spreads. Glencoe will combine the company with Cincinnati-based Clearbrook Farms, a premium fruit-based food manufacturer acquired in 2016.
Campbell Soup Company announced it will acquire organic foods company Pacific Foods of Oregon for $700 million.
Dean Foods is acquiring Uncle Matt’s Organic, which produces organic juices and fruit waters.
The California League of Food Processors changed its name to the California League of Food Producers (CLFP). This change reflects the CLFP board of directors’ desire for a new name that better represents the industry it serves.
Meyer Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of vibratory conveying, bulk material handling and food processing equipment, has been acquired by Precision, Inc., an international employee-owned industry conveyor, pulley and idler manufacturer based in Pella, Iowa.
Kraft Food Ingredients has rebranded itself as Kraft Heinz Ingredients.
West Liberty Foods, one of the largest turkey processors in the US, has won a Manufacturing Leadership Award in Enterprise Technology Leadership from the Frost & Sullivan Manufacturing Leadership Council. As the technology that powers West Liberty Food’s lean manufacturing system, Leading2Lean was also recognized for its role in enabling the food processor’s project.
Lycored, a global carotenoid supplier, is selling its nutrient premix business to US food ingredients supplier Prinova.
tna, a supplier of food processing and packaging solutions, has opened a new office in Toyko, Japan.
Hostess Brands, Inc. promoted Andrew (Andy) W. Jacobs to executive vice president and chief commercial officer, leading all commercial activities for the company. Jacobs was senior vice president and chief customer office at Hostess Brands, and prior to that, he served as senior vice president of strategic channels for the company.
Campbell Soup Company announced the appointments of Bob Furbee, senior vice president, and senior vice president of global supply chain; Jim Sterbenz, senior vice president, US sales; and Emily Waldorf, vice president of corporate strategy to Campbell’s leadership team.
Bill Wierenga has joined Reading Bakery Systems, a snack production systems manufacturer, as engineering research and development manager.
TreeHouse Foods, Inc. appointed Robert B. Aiken, Jr. as president and chief operating officer of TreeHouse. Aiken is taking over for Dennis F. Riordan, who will move to a senior advisor role.
Naturipe Farms announced the appointment of CarrieAnn Arias to vice president of marketing.
W.M. Sprinkman Corporation, a provider of sanitary stainless steel processing solutions for the food and beverage, dairy and craft brewing industries, hired James Dieck as a design engineer and Nathan Vander Pas as a process engineer.
Dur-A-Flex, Inc., a manufacturer of commercial, industrial and institutional seamless, resinous floor and wall systems, hired Trevor Evans as territory sales manager for the Northwest US region.
Pretium Packaging, a North American manufacturer of plastic containers and closures, hired Mark Howell as senior vice president of sales and marketing.