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The Port of Benton plans to kick-start a new 21-lot development with a $2 million building in Prosser designed to attract boutique businesses to complement the neighboring Vintner Village.
Construction on the new building, which will include three bays for businesses, as well as an adjacent office building for a nonprofit, is expected to begin in mid-May.
The port’s popular Vintner Village development already is home to a number of wineries just south of Interstate 82, including Martinez & Martinez Winery and Willow Crest Winery, as well as Yellow Rose Nursery.
Tourists can enjoy walking paths and stay at a 1900s farmhouse that’s been restored as a bed and breakfast.
“Tourism is huge in Prosser,” said Port of Benton Director Scott Keller. “They get thousands of (tourists). People come over from Seattle. They want to get out of the rain.”
More than 50,000 people visit the area’s wineries and attend local events annually, according to the Prosser Economic Development Association, or PEDA.
The 32-acre Vintner Village has been successful and the development “went like a ball of fire,” Keller said. “We ran out of land, so we bought the land to the south of it.”
Along with the $2 million the port invested in roads and infrastructure for Vintner Village, private investments from businesses totaled between $30 million and $40 million, Keller said.
The port bought the 25 acres to the south of the development for $1.2 million and invested another $1.5 million in infrastructure, and for the past three to four years has been working to sell the lots in Vintner Village II.
However, commercial lending has tightened since the financial crisis and growth stalled.
“We’ve got 15 lots that we’ve been trying to move, but things have slowed down a little bit,” Keller said. “We think once we build or start building there, it will be like Vintner Village.”
Instead of waiting for businesses to build their own places in Vintner Village II, the port is creating a $2 million home for them to spur growth. Each of the bays in the new building will feature 500 square feet of office/retail space and another 2,000 square feet for manufacturing and storage.
“What’s really cool is the entire infrastructure is built in. Walking paths between the lots, nice street lamps. It’s all set up for boutique operations,” Keller said. “Water, sewer and electrical is all set in. Even the irrigation.”
The incubator bays won’t be exclusively for wineries, Keller said, though the port has “learned from past experience to put in floor drains. … We have one winery and a start-up brewery ready to (get started).”
Although Keller can’t elaborate on details yet because no contracts have been signed, he said the port has already received several calls since announcing its plans.
“We’ve had several wineries that want to expand to this area, and they want a tasting room here,” he said.
Jason Archibald of ALD Architects in Richland designed the building, which will feature high ceilings and possibly a large garage door out back, Keller said. The exterior will be metal but will fit in well with the look of the surrounding businesses.
The port plans to put the project out for bid within the next month.
Along with the three bays, an adjacent building on the west end will add another 1,500 square feet of space and be used by PEDA. The association currently operates out of the Walter Clore Wine & Culinary Center building on Wine Country Road.
PEDA works to recruit new business, retain existing business and promote the economic welfare in the greater Prosser area. Major public funding partners include the city of Prosser, Port of Benton and Benton County.
To help attract companies to the new development, Keller said they’ll price the bays with a lower rate for small businesses trying to expand or start up. Established companies will receive the existing business market rate, which has not been confirmed yet.
Once businesses grow, Keller said the hope is the will build their own facility in the 22 remaining acres in the development, which will allow a new company to move into the vacated bay. Keller said he’d eventually like to see restaurants, specialty food retail stores, or any business that could complement the wine industry — such as a barrel manufacturing — move into the area.
With construction set to begin this spring, the building likely will not be complete until the end of the year.
Businesses interested in learning more about Vintner Village II can contact the Port of Benton at 509-375-3060 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Against a backdrop of falling pedal powered sales, the revenues generated in the Dutch market have risen on the back of surging electric bike trade.
For the first time in the market’s history the average sale price surpassed a whopping €1,000. It’s not all rosy in the high-modal share capital of the world, however. Total bicycle turnover actually fell to a low not seen since 1987, worth €973 million. Revenue however increased by 4.2%.
Delivering 276,000 sales in 2016, the e-bike is hovering at around 30% of the market’s new bike sales, though slightly down on 2015 when 276,000 were sold. E-bike turnover represented €534 million in revenue, nearly 57% of all all takings.
It is in unit terms that the market has concerns, with a 5.7% dip in turnover meaning just 983,000 bicycles were sold in 2016. When placed against the 1.4 million sold in 2007, it’s clear the market has perhaps become saturated with pedal cycles and that the Dutch are now saving for a more expensive pedal-assisted investment. Sales turnover has dropped consecutively every year since 2007.

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The power equipment provider has accepted an offer from I Squared Capital and TDR Capital worth 880p per share, 39 per cent above the closing price on February 4 when it was first tabled.
Posted: March 5, 2021, 1:51 pm
Investors in private equity cite management fees, diffusing focus and competing for deals as concerns when their fund sponsors set up separate blank-check companies.
Posted: March 5, 2021, 9:00 am
I Squared Capital and TDR Capital will pay over $3 billion for the U.K. supplier of power-generation and temperature-control equipment.
Posted: March 5, 2021, 8:36 am
Johanna Barr, global co-head of limited partner services at Advent, discusses fundraising in a virtual world and how private equity's strong governance can affect change on ESG and diversity & ...
Posted: March 5, 2021, 8:11 am
The article Private equity firm's SPAC InterPrivate II Acquisition prices upsized $225 million IPO originally appeared on IPO investment manager Renaissance Capital's web site renaissancecapital.com.
Posted: March 5, 2021, 3:58 am
Equipment rental company Aggreko said on Friday it was recommending a 2.32 billion pound ($3.22 billion) buyout offer from private equity firms TDR Capital LLP and I Squared Capital. March 5 (Reuters) ...
Posted: March 4, 2021, 11:45 pm
Aggreko looks set to become the latest British business to fall into the hands of private equity after the board of the mobile power specialist recommended a £2.3bn bid. Management, led by chairman ...
Posted: March 4, 2021, 4:14 pm
One of Wichita's most iconic and successful restaurant franchises has sold to a St. Louis private-equity firm. In a deal announced Wednesday, remaining co-founders Randy Simon and Scott Redler sold ...
Posted: March 3, 2021, 3:49 pm
Arts and crafts retailer Michaels said Wednesday it agreed to be sold to private equity giant Apollo Global Management for $22 a share in a ...
Posted: March 3, 2021, 12:38 pm
Morgenthaler Private Equity Partners, the private equity firm co-based in Cleveland, has invested an undisclosed amount in 80/20 Inc. in Columbiana City, Indiana. The Indiana company develops T-slot ...
Posted: March 3, 2021, 12:28 pm
Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with an affiliate of Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) to acquire the global surgical business of Lumenis ...
Posted: March 3, 2021, 10:05 am
Private equity giant Apollo Global Management is acquiring arts and crafts retailer Michaels in a $5 billion deal.
Posted: March 3, 2021, 9:08 am


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Nokia Testing New Lumia Device: Prepping for a Surprise 2013 MWC Launch?
By Erik Pineda | February 1, 2013 12:55 PM EST
Nokia is reportedly testing a new Lumia smartphone, triggering fresh speculations that the Finnish firm is pulling off a surprise following its announcement of a Feb. 25 news briefing at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
A new device, known for now as RM-860, recently appeared on Nokia servers through Navifirm, according to Windows Phone Central. But apart from the 'model tag', nothing much can be gleaned from the revelation except to assume that another Windows phone will hit the market soon.
While there were earlier reports that Nokia is closely working with U.S. telcos AT&T and Verizon for the upcoming releases of new Lumia handsets, the term RM-860 hardly gives away clues about specific phone models that Nokia is currently working.
Yet the indication that the firm will host an event via the 2013 MWC later this month fired up rumours that Nokia is about to uncloak the next Lumia. Note that in previous weeks, reports started circulating that the mobile phone maker has commenced working on two new Windows Phone 8 smartphones.
Reports suggested that anytime this year, Nokia will release the Nokia Catwalk and Nokia Laser but there hints too that what were published model names were so far were pertaining to codenames.
The Nokia Laser, for instance, will likely end up as the refreshed version of the Lumia 920 and will be distributed by Verizon in the United States. So far, this new Lumia 920 is likely to bump up on what were already seen in the original version.
But the most notable spec upgrades will be deployed via the Lumia's PureView camera technology, according to WM Power User. This monster phone will sport a rear-cam shooter of 42MP, the same report claimed.
As for the Catwalk, nothing much has been attributed to the planned Nokia handset save for suggestions that the device will be thinner and lighter compared to its predecessor.
The likelihood is strong that Nokia will launch its fresh device offering via the 2013 MWC, providing some texture for the gadget showcase following observations that the usual anticipation generated by the event was tamed by recent developments.
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Maker of industrial measurement of color, light, and shape solutions, Konica Minolta Sensing Americas, Inc. (Ramsey, NJ) and threeRivers 3D Inc. (Gibsonia, PA), a manufacturer of standard and custom 3D scanners, have announced the joint launch of the Virtuoso, a non-contact 3D laser scanner. A networkready device, the Virtuoso is said to be able to scan virtually any object under nearly all lighting conditions. According to the companies, the Virtuoso is the first scanner on the market to be both Macintosh- and PC-compatible, making it suitable for artists, sculptors, and graphic designers as well industrial designers and engineers.
EMS Inc., the premier provider of rapid product development equipment and services including Z Corp 3DPrinters and 3D Scanners, announced that they have outgrown their former headquarters and has moved into a new larger, more modern location. Recently, EMS has been revealing a lot of news in relation to the positive growth that they have developed and this is another significant reflection of their forward progression. The larger space and wellРІР‚С’designed layout is necessary to accommodate the staff and business growth that they
EMS Inc., the premier provider of rapid product development equipment and services including Z Corp 3DPrinters and 3D Scanners, announced that they will be exhibiting at design and manufacturing events during March as well as hosting their own РІР‚ВOpen HouseРІР‚в„ў events at their Tampa and Atlanta offices.
The two shows that theyРІР‚в„ўll be showcasing at are Design & Manufacture South (Booth #948) in Orlando, FL and Design 2 Part (Booth #424) in Atlanta, GA. Both shows are occurring simultaneously on March 16thРІР‚вЂњ 17th,2011. EMS will be displaying their capabilities and innovative technology that assists designers and manufacturers bring products to market faster. Stop by EMSРІР‚в„ўs booth to learn how 3D scanners, 3D printers,and 3D CAD software can help improve your product development cycle.
USF Research Park recently held an event that launched Governor Rick ScottРІР‚в„ўs РІР‚СљLetРІР‚в„ўs Get To WorkРІР‚Сњ jobs our. ScottРІР‚в„ўstatewide tour is to gain insight on modern advances and innovations which can help create jobs and economic growth in Florida. While at USF he met with entrepreneurs, business executives and students to discuss how the state can grow through economic development and business. EMS Inc. was invited by USF to exhibit at this event because of the transforming technologies EMS offers, which also has earned them a solid reputation for improving corporations all over the country. EMS demonstrated the latest technology in 3D scanning, reverse engineering,rapid prototyping and 3D inspection.
EMS Inc., the premier provider of rapid product development equipment and services including Z Corp 3D Printers and 3D Scanners, announced that their newly designed website is live and has already been getting great feedback from viewers. EMS decided to redesign its website as a vital communication tool for its clients and for the product development industry as a whole. This decision resulted in an improved website which offers a fresh new look that technically provides its online visitors with significant improvements in navigation, vital industry content, video demonstrations, project galleries, new quoting forms for prospective clients and much more.
EMS Inc., the premier provider of rapid product development equipment and services including Z Corp 3DPrinters and 3D Scanners, is excited to announce the hiring of three new employees to its corporate headquarters located in Tampa, Florida. РІР‚СљWe are delighted to welcome these talented new members to the EMS team,РІР‚Сњ said President & CEO Mark Kemper. РІР‚СљWe continue to add staff as a result of our rapidly growing client roster and continued loyal customers, which includes some of the worldРІР‚в„ўs leading global consumer brand companies.
Engineering & Manufacturing Services Inc. (EMS), the premier provider of rapid product development equipment and services including Z Corp 3D Printers and 3D Scanners, is excited to announce the latest dates of their very popular and informative 3D Technology Day events. Learn how to design superior
products and watch live demonstrations at any of the free educational events.
These EMS 3D Technology Days will be structured similar to our past events as an open house style;
meaning you can come anytime you want and see what interests you. EMS will have their engineering
experts in the fields of rapid prototyping, 3D scanning, 3D CAD who will offer live demos as well as be
able to answer any questions. Unlike typical seminars, you will not be sitting through boring Powerpoint
EMS, Inc the leading provider of rapid product development products and services including Z Corp 3D Printers and 3D Scanners won the top award at the
CoolTECH 2010 event in Tampa, Florida. CoolTECH 2010 was very well attended and included 46 exhibitors competing for the top award for best new
CoolTECH showcases Florida companies focused on innovative products, technologies and services in emerging markets. EMS has long been an innovator in applying value added techniques and methods using advanced technologies like 3D Printers, 3D scanners, and virtual clay sculpting software and hardware.
EMS, Inc the premier provider of rapid product
development products and services including Z Corp
3D Printers and 3D Scanners has released a new series
of technical demonstration videos. These videos cover
subjects such as 3D scanning, 3D printing, rapid
prototyping technologies, 3D scan data editing, virtual
clay sculpting and more.
EMS, Inc the leading provider of Z Corp 3D Printers and 3D Scanners is announcing the expansion of their
Michigan office with new personal. Since 2001 EMS, Inc. has been the leading provider of 3D Printers, 3D
Scanners and 3D CAD software products and services with offices throughout the US.
Joining the EMS team in Michigan are two veteran industry specialists, Tim Mackey and Chris Rydin. Tim
and Chris bring EMS, Inc. over 25 years of experience in 3D CAD, engineering and manufacturing to provide sales, service, training and technical support for our Educational and Commercial customers in Michigan.
According to President & CEO Mark Kemper, РІР‚СљEMS, Inc. believes in MichiganРІР‚в„ўs future and is excited to
be a part of the rebirth taking place. While other companies have left Michigan weРІР‚в„ўre pleased with the fact that were growing and expanding in a state that plays a very important role in the US economy.РІР‚Сњ
Engineering & Manufacturing Services Inc (EMS) sold more Z Corporation 3D scanners than any other company in the world in 2008 to obtain the number one ranking. EMS continues to sell more 3D printers and 3D scanners than any other company, a ranking
EMS has held for 3 consecutive years.
According to president, Mark Kemper, РІР‚Сљthe new Z800 3D scanner from Z Corp with its unmatched speed, portability, and high accuracy allowed us to take the number one position. The key to our success was our dedicated staff of scanning engineers who know how to solve complex reverse engineering and scanning problems.РІР‚Сњ In addition, to its Tampa, FL headquarters EMS opened an office in Orlando and Atlanta in 2008 to
help facilitate its aggressive growth in the southeast, Kemper continues


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In 2017, Unilever made an industry leading commitment to ensure that all its plastic packaging will be designed to be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. To help create an end market for this material, the company also committed to increase the recycled plastic content in its packaging to at least 25 per cent by 2025. These targets are driving real change in the business – in particular how packaging is designed for recyclability and reuse.
Packaging Europe delves into the strategy Unilever is taking to achieve its goals- collaborative agreements on emerging technologies, pinpointing critical locations to implement change whilst also engaging on a global level, and critically defining a framework for future innovation.
The collaborative model
The work will focus on material collection, which will help channel recycled content back into the value chain. Veolia will work with Unilever to implement used packaging collection solutions, add recycling capacity and develop new processes and business models through this partnership in various countries.
Marc Engel, Unilever’s Chief Supply Chain Officer, commented: “The scale of the plastic waste issue is getting worse, not better, with the production of plastics expected to double over the next two decades. We all have a lot more to do to address this critical issue and we hope that by partnering with Veolia, a world leader in waste management, we can take meaningful strides towards a circular economy.”
Laurent Auguste, Senior Executive Vice-President of Veolia for Development, Innovation and Markets, commented: “There is an undeniable need to transform the current way plastic packaging end of life is managed in order to reduce significantly its environmental footprint. It will take a collaboration of a new kind between all the actors of the value chain. With this global partnership, Veolia and Unilever join forces in various geographies around the globe and, from the collection to the recycling, take a leadership role to redefine a responsible and sustainable future for packaging.”
A critical location
In India, Unilever is in early stages of conducting multiple pilots to identify solutions which could help improve the effectiveness of existing collection systems.
Veolia and Unilever have also agreed to jointly evaluate effective recycling systems which would enable recycling of this plastic waste. The goal is to create a circular economy on plastics and stop any leakage into the environment.
The challenge in creating a circular economy for plastics starts with collection, particularly of flexibles. Here Veolia and Hindustan Unilever (HUL) are collaborating to conduct multiple pilots to identify solutions which could help improve the effectiveness of existing collection systems.
“We’re starting in India and Indonesia where the issue of plastic pollution is particularly acute, and therefore where we have the greatest opportunity to improve waste management and recycling infrastructure. Indonesia is the second largest country producing plastic waste ending up in the ocean,” states a Unilever spokesperson.
Broader global effort
This partnership is part of a broader global effort by Unilever to shift its global portfolio of packaging to be 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. It has also committed to using at least 25 per cent recycled content (PCR) in our plastic packaging by 2025.
To meet these commitments, Unilever has adopted an internal framework which shapes its thinking and future innovation around three key focuses: Less plastic- such as with injection compression technology which saved 21 tonnes of plastic in 2017, better plastic- eliminating problematic/unnecessary plastics, using recyclable materials and more recycled content, and no plastic E.g. biodegradable PG tips teabags launched in the UK earlier this year.
“However, in order to reach our targets, aside from product design innovation we also need to address challenges of low availability and quality of PCR on the market. That’s why we’re also developing other emerging technologies,” says a Unilever spokesperson.
For example, it has partnered with start-up company Ioniqa and the largest global producer of PET resin Indorama Ventures to pioneer a new technology, which converts PET waste back into virgin grade material for use in food packaging.
This technology has already been used to create new Hellmann’s mayonnaise bottles. If proven successful at industrial scale, in future it will be possible to convert all PET back into high quality, food-grade packaging.
Unilever believes that this fully circular solution could lead to an industry transformation, since it can be repeated infinitely.
Testing emerging technologies
Unilever is also trialling a ground-breaking new CreaSolv® Sachet recycling technology to recycle plastic sachets. Billions of sachets are sold every year, particularly in developing markets. They’re an efficient way of reaching low-income consumers with products that would otherwise be unaffordable to them. However, without a recycling solution, sachets end up in landfill, waterways or the ocean. Unilever hopes that CreaSolv® will transform sachets from a global problem into a sustainable economic opportunity.
To recycle plastic sachets using CreaSolv® technology the company needs to work with municipalities and retailers to set up waste collection schemes so that the sachets to be recycled. For example, in Indonesia it has helped communities to develop over 2600 Community Waste Banks in 18 cities where they can collect inorganic waste and sell it based on its value, ultimately reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.
For the moment materials feeding the CreaSolv® plant are sourced from the Community Waste Banks. Making it technically possible for all its plastic packaging to be reused or recycled is part of the solution. However, Unilever also needs to demonstrate established, proven examples of it being commercially viable for re-processors to recycle the material.
“We are making good progress and continue to iron out any issues linked to the technical and commercial viability. For instance, we have learned a huge amount through our pilot plant such as improving the layout and interfaces between the equipment so that it is more efficient,” shares a Unilever spokesperson.
“Once we have done this, it is our ambition to start discussions with investors and others interested parties to develop a full-scale commercial plant capable of processing 12-30 tonnes of material a day.
“To support a commercial plant, we need to substantially increase the volume of flexible plastics we collect. Our ambition is to capture 1,500 tonnes in 2019 and nearly 5,000 tonnes of material in 2020. For us to achieve this we need to work with governments and industry to develop the necessary collection infrastructure. This includes introducing source separation in households so wet and dry waste can be segregated for collection – for example Community Waste Banks.”
Unilever is now leveraging its waste bank network to collect multi-layered flexible sachets. For instance, it has started a flexible waste pilot in East Java to collect pouches and is creating an end-to-end solution by sending this material to its CreaSolv plant for recycling.
Unilever is a co-founding signatory of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment, launched at the Our Ocean Conference in Bali. The Commitment aims to create ‘a new normal’ for plastic packaging.
It’s also a co-founding partner of investment management firm Circulate Capital’s Ocean Fund, dedicated to incubating and financing infrastructure that combats ocean plastic pollution in South and South East Asia.
By engaging with policy makers Unilever advocates for a more effective and efficient waste infrastructure, including: promoting integrated waste management solutions, stretching national recycling targets, at-source separation and collection systems for recyclables, incentives to increase the use of recycled content, voluntary industry-led and funded programs and mechanisms to create a level playing field. It’s also supportive of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations which reflect the unique waste management requirements of the market.
Another challenge is around helping consumers to change their behaviour. “Our responsibility is to make sure our packaging is fully recyclable but also easy for consumers to recycle. So, we aim to make our labelling as clear as possible for consumers and we support national labelling schemes where they exist, for example the On-Pack Recycling Label scheme in the UK,” says a Unilever spokesperson.
It has also signed up as founding member of the UK Plastics Pact, an ambitious multi-stakeholder initiative, led by WRAP, which aims to transform the plastic packaging system in the UK and keep plastic in the economy and out of the ocean.
By acknowledging that the issue of plastic waste is a shared responsibility that requires bold action across the value chain, Unilever’s steps towards change are progressive, inclusive and hold the potential for wide reaching change- critical in the transition towards a circular economy.


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Most of the people starting new ventures mostly lack the human and financial resources to grow and actualize their goals. The entity might be that of first-time entrepreneurs or existing businesses that need to diversify. There are many ways to raise capital such as loans and grants, but one excellent source is through a person who believes in your dream.Venture capitalists and angel investorsare one of a kind. One person who believes in and supports startups is Shervin Pishevar. He believes that entrepreneurship should be encouraged to increase competition which eventually brings out new ideas. The killing of startups through acquisitions and mergers only strengthens a brand creating a monopoly and making it hard for other startups to penetrate the market. This monopoly is a problem for consumers who won’t have a variety to choose from, and the economy is also bound to suffer.
Shervin Pishevar is a philanthropist and investor who has been helping many business startups financially. He is one of the favorite angel investors in the US through his company Investment company which was one of the early investors in Uber. With his help over 60 companies have been able to access the finance needed to run. He is currently concentrating on his latest project in transportation, Hyperloop One. Investment company, where he serves as the managing director has invested in other firms such as Airbnb and Munchery. Other companies he has invested in include Postmates, Didi, Dollar Shave Club, and Warby Parker to mention a few. Before joining the financial sector, Shervin Pishevar was a tech entrepreneur who founded companies such as Hyper Officeand Social Gaming Network.
For his contribution and effort in startups,Shervin Pishevar has received several awards in his career. He was named the Outstanding American by Choice in 2012 by the US government. He is also a member of UN Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council, and in 2015 he was appointed by President Barrack Obama to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. The current investment Hyperloop One is already gaining momentum with Virgin’s CEO Richard Branson joining the board recently.
It is 2018 and businesses have been makingmergers and acquisitions left, right and center. There have been so many such deals in 2018 than ever before as experienced investment banker Anil Chaturvedi explains. We have seen some big names in the business sector merge with equally big businesses. Some of the prominent deals include Times Warner linking up with AT&T and AOL joining forces with Yahoo. Despite all these mergers and acquisitions, many people still do not know what the deals are all about. Mergers and acquisitions is a name that is thrown all around, but few really understand its meaning and why it is even necessary for businesses to get into such deals. Anil Chaturvedi has used his experience in the investment banking sector to explain what it means to be in a merger and acquisitions.
Mergers and acquisitions are good for business because of one thing; they help the companies increase their market value as well as create wealth for shareholders. There would be no other main reason why a business would agree to such a deal unless it is going to strengthen its capacity in business. There are however other reasons which push businesses to get into such deals.
Lowering the cost of supply is another reason. If you follow how the big brands in the industry work, you will realize that they work alongside other companies, which supply them with parts to build their devices. There are companies which supplement the operations of such companies. A good example is Apple which has a number of companies which supply them with different parts to make their Apple devices. When a company wants to lower the cost of doing business with such companies, they will opt for a merger or acquisition.
About Anil Chaturvedi
Banker Anil Chaturvediis an experienced investment manager. He has spent his entire career in the industry. He has so far worked for over 40 years in this industry and is still active in the operations of various entities in the industry. Currently, he is working as the Managing director of Hinduja Bank in Switzerland. Previously, he was working with Merrill Lynch for 17 years.


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Uber’s 4-year anniversary: Not much to celebrate, as world’s largest ride-hailer struggles to scale in Nigeria’s perilous taxi market
Leading ride sharing app, Uber celebrated four years of operating in Africa last week. It also announced that it had created about 29,000 jobs or economic opportunities as it will like to call it and over 1.8 million riders.
Uber also reported that in Nigeria, it has about 267,000 riders who actively utilize the app/service and 7,000 drivers in Nigeria alone. In just under three years since the ride sharing app came into Nigeria, this achievement appears laudable.
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The achievement is not also limited to Nigeria. Uber also reported impressive numbers across other Sub-Saharan African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa, where it first launched. According to the data described above, its driver and riders population as at 2017 are in South Africa 12,000/969,000, Kenya 5,000/363,000, Ghana 3,000/140,000 , Uganda 1,000/48,000, Tanzania 1,000/53,000 respectively.
Juxtaposing the data from Nigeria with those of its African counterparts reveal a major problem for Nigeria. Unlike it’s Sub-Saharan African neighbours, Nigeria is the lowest when it comes to the number of riders per driver. See chart below;
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Why this is bad
At just 39 riders available to each driver, Uber drivers in Nigeria have by far the lowest pool of customers where they can draw from in SSA. South Africa in contrast has about 81 riders per driver, dwarfing Nigeria by 2 folds. Ghana which is a far smaller economy than Nigeria even has 47 riders per driver.
Thus, for Nigeria to be at the same riders per driver level as South Africa, riders would have to double to as high as 567,000. It has taken Uber about 4 years to reach 276,000, suggesting that more work needs to be done in the Nigerian entity.
If you also consider that Uber riders also form the same pool that their other competitors of Uber cater for, then the data looks even more precarious. If the numbers don’t stack up for the world’s leading ride sharing service, it is hard to see any smaller local competitor survive in the short-term.
For current Uber Partners and would be Partners, the data should also raise red flags concerning the viability of this partnership. Having access to just 39 riders per driver is not an encouraging sign for several reasons. For example, it means that with fewer riders, fares will likely remain depressed for longer while the number of rides available for each driver per day will be limited.
The data above appears to indicate that the ride sharing model is facing significant challenges with scaling in Nigeria. Uber must have known that its number of riders and indeed drivers have been shrinking in Nigeria which suggest why it did not hesitate to slash prices, after Taxify, a rival service, launched in Nigeria. But the effect has been anything but positive for Uber.
As prices crashed so did service. Drivers would not accept trips that did not look lucrative, leaving would be Uber riders frustrated and often falling back to legacy taxis if the alternative is not forthcoming. Uber Partners have also often complained of lower than expected margins while drivers have protested as they see their income plummet.
Uber might be celebrating 4 years in Sub Saharan Africa but along with its partners and drivers, the future of this model is nowhere close to being rosy.


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Businesses across the country are working to create healthy communities. To further strengthen the business community’s role in obesity prevention programs, the U.S.
Health and Wellness
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation publishes content on health and wellness and related issues. Find and access current and archived items in our database.
Building on a $500 million commitment made in 2007, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has recently announced a renewed pledge, bringing the total to $1 billion. The impressive sum will be aimed at reversing the childhood obesity epidemic.
AUSTIN - "What is our moonshot?" Austin's medical technologists realize that their city is on the precipice of being a leader in the healthcare space. A new medical center is opening up. An innovation district is coming along. Capital is appearing and talent is plenty.
Mondelez International, the world’s largest snack company, delights consumers with treats, including biscuits, chocolate, and gum, from brands like Oreo, Cadbury, and Trident.
In February 2011, Campbell Soup Company announced the launch of a 10-year, $10 million initiative to reduce childhood obesity and hunger by 50% in our hometown of Camden, New Jersey, which has been Campbell world headquarters since 1869.


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The Wi-Fi Alliance today announced new data summarizing trends from the first year of activity since its Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n testing program was launched.
The following data points summarize trends among the more than 1,100 products that have achieved the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n designation since September 30, 2009 – when the certification tests and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo were updated to align with finalization of the IEEE 802.11n standard.
Handsets shifting to next-generation Wi-Fi
* 127 phones are now Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n, accounting for 20% of handsets certified in the last 12 months
Essential technology for the digital home
* 251 consumer electronics products achieved Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n designation in the last 12 months
* Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n consumer electronics include media servers, digital audio systems, gaming devices, and display devices
Increased performance capabilities and more dual-band products than ever before
* Dual-band products, operating in both 2.4 and 5GHz, are on the rise as Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n technology continues to proliferate
o 441 products certified in the past 12 months are dual-band capable
o 143 products can support both 5GHz and 2.4 GHz operation concurrently
Enterprise-grade products: Ethernet replacement becomes a reality
* Enterprise networking vendors are responding to IT managers' demand 802.11n technology for its performance capacity, robustness, and range
o 157 enterprise-grade infrastructure devices achieved the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n designation since the program's launch
o 115 enterprise-grade access points support operation in either 2.4GHz or 5GHz
Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n is today's Wi-Fi technology
* Market adoption of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n technology parallels the product transitions illustrated above. ABI Research predicts that about 59 percent of Wi-Fi products sold in 2010 will include 802.11n technology; by 2013, Wi-Fi shipments are expected to be nearly 95 percent 802.11n.
"The number and variety of devices that have become Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n in past 12 months have been tremendously exciting," said Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director, Wi-Fi Alliance. "From televisions to mobile phones and points in between, Wi-Fi now connects a majority of consumer electronics, delivering the entertainment experiences that consumers crave."
"It's clear that Wi-Fi's integration into virtually all areas of the consumer electronics spectrum continues to expand," said Phil Solis, research director, ABI Research. "At the heart of this growth is Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n, which will continue to deliver the advanced performance these devices require, now and well into the future."
For a list of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products, numerous white papers, and other information, visit: http://www.wi-fi.org


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Koei-Tecmo recently promised that they would be building up to the imminent March release of their action RPG Nioh 2 by sharing new updates about it with fans every week, and it seems like they’re certainly going to live up to that.
This week, for instance, will see them releasing a new trailer for Nioh 2. The PlayStation Europe official Twitter account recently posted an update, confirming that a new Nioh 2 trailer would be released tomorrow, Jauary 23rd. Here’s hoping it’s a meaty one and gives us a good, solid look at the game’s improved combat.
Speaking of improvements, Nioh 2’s recent beta has resulted in developers Team Ninja taking a lot of feedback into account, which will see them working on several adjustments and balance changes for the final release, entailing the UI, tutorials, combat, and more. Read more on that through here.
Nioh 2 is out on March 13, exclusively for the PS4.
“War is unending…” pic.twitter.com/iAfR73kYk0
— PlayStation Europe (@PlayStationEU) January 22, 2020


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The world’s first CMOS process-based Time-of-Flight sensor with a maximum external measurement range of 20 meters, more than five times that of existing products, will guide the practical use of autonomous drone image sensors and cameras and others industrial applications.
TOKYO, June 16, 2022 / PRNewswire / – Toppan (TYO: 7911), a global leader in communications, security, packaging, furniture materials and electronic solutions, and Brookman Technology, Inc. (Brookman Technology), a subsidiary of Toppan originating from L ‘Shizuoka University and engaged in the development and sale of CMOS image sensors, have collaborated in the use of a hybrid Time-of-Flight (ToF) method to develop a three-dimensional gamma image sensor (3D sensor) capable of measure distances from one to 30 meters.
The new sensor is capable of measuring over a range more than five times greater than that possible with 3D sensors using the conventional indirect ToF method. This will help improve the operability and safety of autonomous drones and robot carriers equipped with sensors to enable them to avoid obstacles. The ToF hybrid sensor also has a unique ambient light suppression function, making it the first in the world CMOS image sensor capable of measuring distances up to 20 meters in conditions with an illuminance of 100,000 lux, equivalent to midsummer daytime brightness.
Details of this new type of ToF sensor technology were presented on June 15 by Toppan, Brookman Technology and Shizuoka University at the 2022 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology & Circuits (VLSI Symposium), an international conference on semiconductor technologies held in Honolulu, Hawaii, June 13-17 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
The 3D sensor market is expected to expand as smartphones and game consoles become more sophisticated and the use of autonomous robots in the industry grows. There are different types of 3D sensors, based on the different principles used to detect distance. ToF sensors estimate the distance to an object by measuring the time it takes for the emitted light to be reflected. In the wake of advances in technological development in recent years, the use of ToF sensors for smartphones and other devices is on the rise due to their compact form factor and low power consumption.
Autonomous robots and drones must have an environmental mapping function that allows them to detect obstacles tens of meters in front and ascertain their position from video images. However, the widespread use of 3D sensors using the conventional indirect ToF method has been limited due to insufficient ambient light tolerance when used outdoors.
With Brookman Technology now on board as a subsidiary, Toppan has been able to leverage the strengths of both companies to lead the development of a new type of 3D sensor. This has led to the development of a hybrid ToF technology based on the refinement of Brookman Technology’s unique “short pulse modulation”. method, which enables long-distance measurements, exceptional ambient light tolerance, high-speed imaging, and simultaneous use of multiple cameras.
“Together with Brookman technology, we hope these new sensors will contribute to greater safety and convenience by acting as ‘3D sensing eyes’ that expand the possibilities of autonomous robots and industrial devices,” said Tatsuo Noguchi, head of the ToF Business Development Center. by Toppan. “Toppan will lead the further development of range sensor cameras employing the new ToF technology, with a plan to make the models available for testing starting in December this year and launch sales in the fall of 2023.”
Features of the new ToF sensor
Measure distances up to 30 meters
Using a hybrid ToF method allows you to measure distances up to 30 meters, approximately five times longer than conventional models.
Noise canceling function to facilitate outdoor measurement in midsummer conditions
Each pixel has a function to eliminate external light components. This removes ambient light noise and makes accurate measurement possible even when the illuminance is in the range of 100,000 lux, equivalent to midsummer daylight.
High-speed imaging of 120 frames per second
Distances can be measured without blurring, which can cause errors, as the measurement and noise suppression of ambient light is done in a single frame. This allows you to capture a maximum of 120 images per second, approximately four times the capacity of existing models.
Simultaneous operation of up to 256 cameras
A unique control technique allows you to cancel signals from other cameras by treating them as ambient light. This means that up to 256 cameras can be used simultaneously without interference between cameras.
Learn about Brookman technology
Brookman Technology, Inc. was founded in Hamamatsu, Japan in 2006 as Brookman Lab, Inc., by CMOS image sensor expert Dr. Shoji Kawahito, professor of electrical engineering at Shizuoka University. Since then, Brookman Technology has worked on numerous forms of analog and mixed-signal CMOS IC design, specializing in the design of advanced CMOS image sensors for a wide range of applications. The company became a Toppan subsidiary in March 2021 through the acquisition of 94.6% of its shares.
Founded in Tokyo in 1900, Toppan is a leading and diversified global supplier committed to providing integrated and sustainable solutions in industries such as printing, communications, security, packaging, furniture, electronics and digital transformation. Toppan’s global team of more than 50,000 employees offers optimal solutions enabled by industry-leading skills and technologies to address the diverse challenges of each business sector and society and contribute to the achievement of shared sustainability goals.
For more information, visit https://www.toppan.com/en/


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A whopping share buyback plan can’t disguise the challenges that still lie ahead at the tech giant
By M.G.| SAN FRANCISCO
THERE was no firm timetable for an iWatch or for a revolutionary iTV. Nor was there a concrete plan for releasing a low-cost iPhone. There was, however, the promise of what is reportedly the biggest share buyback in American corporate history.
Announcing Apple’s results for the first three months of 2013 on April 23rd, Tim Cook, the firm’s boss, stayed mum about the company’s product pipeline, saying only that it was working on some “amazing new hardware, software and services” to be rolled out in the autumn of this year and in 2014. But he was very clear about the cash that Apple plans to return to its shareholders’ pockets in the form of increased dividends and buybacks. Altogether the firm plans to pay out $100 billion by the end of 2015.
That pile of money seems to have placated investors, who have watched in dismay as Apple’s share price plummeted from a high of over $700 in September to under $400 last week. Following the results announcement, the firm’s shares closed at $406, up nearly 2%. But although Mr Cook has bought himself some breathing space by raising planned share buybacks from $10 billion to $60 billion and increasing planned dividends by 15%, he still needs to show that he and his colleagues can produce new blockbuster products and services that will help reignite the company’s growth and replenish its $145 billion pile of cash and liquid investments.
Ever since Mr Cook replaced Steve Jobs at Apple’s helm, speculation has mounted that the company has lost some of the magic that helped it create winning products such as the iPhone and iPad. Mr Cook’s fans say those who think Apple should already have come up with a new category-killer are being unrealistic. A few years between big innovations is nothing to worry about. And they note that the iPad and the iPhone are still driving sales forward. In the first quarter of 2013 Apple reported $43.6 billion in revenue, an increase of 11% compared with the same period in 2012 and a figure that dwarfs the sales reported by the likes of Google and Microsoft.
Moreover, the company still boasts juicy margins on most of its products. Asymco, a research outfit, recently estimated that Apple accounted for 45% of the profits of the personal-computer business and generates more operating profit than the top five PC vendors combined. Asymco reckons that that Apple does even better in smartphones, where its fat margins mean it accounts for over 70% of total profits.
But there are signs that the company’s margins are being squeezed by stiffer competition and the introduction of the iPad mini, which has a lower profit margin than bigger iPads. In its latest quarter the firm’s gross margin shrank year-on-year from 47.4% to 37.5% and its quarterly net profit shrank for the first time in ten years, falling from $11.6 billion to $9.5 billion.
If, as seems likely, Apple decides to launch a low-cost version of its popular iPhone to better compete in emerging markets—and in the market for pre-paid phones that don’t require a monthly subscription to a carrier—then the firm’s margins could be squeezed even more. And that could hit its share price. Benjamin Reitzes, an analyst at Barclays, an investment bank, reckons every percentage point decline in Apple’s gross margin equates to a drop of $1.40 in earnings per share.
Apple also needs to do more to beat back rivals, in particular Samsung, which has emerged as a powerful competitor in the smartphone market. Investors want to see it respond to the arrival of “phablets” (a combination of a phone and a tablet: their large, 5-inch screens are bigger than those of most smartphones, but not as big as a tablet computer’s).
Then there is China, where Apple has been growing fast but has stumbled on several occasions. Mr Cook recently had to launch a public apology after Apple came under concerted fire in the country for its warranty policies. Such hiccups aside, China could be a much bigger source of business for Apple if it can find a way to strike a deal for distribution of its wares with a firm such as China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile operator.
But even if it keeps expanding its phone and tablet businesses, the company will still need to come up with further innovations to convince doubters that it can thrive in the post-Jobs era. And that is where the next twelve months or so will be crucial. Rumours have it that Apple is working on some form of smart watch and Mr Cook has made no secret that disrupting television is a subject of “intense interest” to Apple. The company is also looking at services such as mobile payments, which could leverage the 435m or so customers of its iTunes store.
Innovations in these and other areas could well be on the list of “amazing” things that Mr Cook alluded to on Apple’s latest earnings call. The big question is whether they will prove to be as revolutionary when they appear as the extraordinary products that flowed out of Apple during Mr Jobs’s period at the helm. Mr Cook has played his cash card cleverly. Now he needs to show that he can turn up trumps on the innovation front too.


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Firm behind 'rank' plastic pollution inspired by lockdown to 'go green'
- Credit: DMD Group
A construction company fed up with the industry's "rank" use of plastic has vowed to clean up its act after the pandemic gave directors "time to think" about their environmental impact.
DMD Group, based in Norwich but operating nationwide, was putting up over 1000m worth of brand new plastic fascias, soffits and rainwater guttering on houses every week before the pandemic.
On a "good week", sometimes the number doubled.
Steve Bowden, commercial director for the 50-employee strong company, said: "We primarily do planned maintenance for social and council housing across the UK - but the way we were operating before the pandemic was madness.
"We'd be taking down all this plastic guttering and just replacing it with brand new plastic guttering. Then we'd send our waste off to landfill and pay lots of money for someone else to separate it. It was rank, and it just didn't make sense."
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Since the middle of last year, after the first national lockdown, the company has vowed to "go green".
After investing around £30,000 in facilities to manage their own waste in an environmentally-friendly way, they also partnered with a manufacturer that makes recycled plastic.
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- 3 How Norwich are you? Take our quiz to find out
- 4 Caravan catches fire in Norwich
- 5 Armed police called to reports of man with knife
- 6 Key route into city closes for a week for safety improvement work
- 7 Jets heard roaring over Norwich for training exercise
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- 9 Norwich mum and daughter duo shed 12st
- 10 Post Office at new location opening 78 hours a week
Now, when they do a repair job, if the customer consents, the replacement plastic is made from recycled rather than "virgin" plastic.
Mr Bowden said: "Last year during lockdown I had a lot of time to think. It was a really rough year for everyone, and I lost both my mum and my nan.
"But also, I could see around me how pristine everything was becoming because people were stuck in their houses.
"It got me thinking about the health of the planet as a whole, and I realised we could no longer in good conscience continue as we were. We had to clean up our act.
"Our quotes might be more expensive, but you have to think - do those white van men who do the job for a lot cheaper care about where their waste goes?
"I know it's easier for us as a bigger company, but everyone has a role to play in this."
DMD Group, now 17 years old, is run by the Peruzzi family, with Dean Peruzzi acting as managing director.
Mr Bowden, meanwhile, grew up in Mile Cross but now lives in Taverham.


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THE international appeal of Australia’s first virtual field days expo has been confirmed with six New Zealand companies coming on board the Primex Online Business Hub.
The unique expo, which runs through until July 7, has already proven to be a major boost for Australian primary industry businesses hit hard by COVID-19. Read More >
Primary producers throughout northern New South Wales and southern Queensland have welcomed the announcement of a ‘virtual field days expo’, allowing them to cash in on vital end of financial year purchases. Read More >
Richmond Valley Council has thrown its support behind Australia’s first-ever virtual field days event by providing Primex with a one-off grant of $15,000 from funding it received under the NSW Government’s Bushfire Community Resilience and Economic Recovery Fund. Read More >
Norco Primex Field Days will move up to 400 exhibitors, hundreds more suppliers and their tons of machinery and product from an 18-hectare site at Casino in northern New South Wales to loungerooms, kitchen tables and offices across Australia. Read More >


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ic and trade consultations, with a goal of implementing the consensuses President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump r
eached in December, said Xue Rongjiu, deputy director of the China Society for WTO Studies in Beijing.
China has made various moves recently to expand the new round of reform and opening-up — such as the approval of the Foreign Investm
ent Law in March and further facilitating trade connectivity under the Belt and Road Initiative. It will cont
inue opening its market in a proactive, steady and orderly manner, in accordance with its own development ne
eds and its own pace and timetable, to benefit Chinese and global consumers across the world, said Tu Xinquan, a pro
fessor of international trade at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
James Collins, CEO of Corteva Agriscience, the agricultural division of US-bas
ed DowDuPont, said he hopes the two countries will reach a positive resolution, to benefit both countries and the re
st of the world. Collins said his firm was “not so much affected” in the short term by China-US trade tensions.


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ESPN on Xbox Live
How it panned out: While ESPN on Xbox 360 turned out to be an impressive content portal for the sports giant, some 360 owners are left out of all the fun.
June 1, 2011 3:38 PM PDT
Photo by: Jeff Bakalar/CNET
| Caption by: Jeff Bakalar
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The private housing market remained in the doldrums in July, with sales of private homes remaining flat as developers continued to scale back new launches. Property developers sold 484 new private homes last month, up marginally from the 482 units sold in June, latest data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed on Friday (Aug 15).
Including executive condominiums (ECs), 535 new units were sold in July, up from 531 units the previous month. The lacklustre sales came as developers launched just 434 new units, slightly more than the 418 units launched in June. In May, 1,488 new private homes were sold as developers launched 1,819 units.
Mr Donald Han, managing director of Chestertons, said: “There has been general weakness in the market, but at the same time, there have not been popular launches of mass market projects. I think developers have been holding back because the response from the public was not conducive for them to launch.”
Mr Desmond Sim, head of CBRE Research Singapore, said: “The market definitely needs some kick-start or maybe removal of measures”.
Most of the units sold in July were at the city fringe. New launch City Gate, located at Beach Road, was the top performer this month, selling 89 out of the 150 units launched, with a median price of S$1,809 per square foot. Analysts attributed this to its location and price.
Mr Sim said: “It was marketed properly. If you price it properly, probably around S$1 million, there is still demand out there.”
Releasing its remaining units in July, The Vermont on Cairnhill came in second. It moved 37 units and some analysts noted that developers had offered a price discount of about S$200 per square foot in July, selling it at a median price of S$2,113.
“The Vermont on Cairnhill received its Temporary Occupation Period in 2013 and its developer stepped up its marketing activity last month to clear the remaining units,” said Ms Christine Li, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee. According to caveats data, earlier units were sold at a median price of S$2,313 per square foot.
“With a little bit of interior design, as well as some rental guarantees, it shows that sometimes, it is not just about reducing the price, it is about coming up with creative packaging for you to be able to move units. That helps to address concerns because buyers are concerned about pending oversupply completions, such as if they able to rent,” said Mr Han.
The other top performers were Coco Palms and The Citron Residences, which both sold 23 units each.
Analysts expect home sales to continue to be subdued in August also because it coincides with the Hungry Ghost Month, which is typically seen by some to be an inauspicious time to make home purchases. Furthermore, with loan curbs still in place, analysts added that homebuyers are likely to be selective and cautious for this half of the year.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 15 Aug 2014


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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has announced China will not tolerate a GDP expansion rate of less than 7%, with the target necessary to meet a long-term aim of having a prosperous society by 2020.
“The comments confirmed that the government’s acceptable range for growth this year is between 7% and 7.5%,” Chang Jian, a Hong Kong-based economist at Barclays, told Bloomberg.
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“As economic growth is slowing to below 7.5%, the government policy’s focus is gradually shifting to stabilising growth.”
IGA accuses supermarket giants of inflating fuel discounts
Metcash chief executive Ian Morrice has accused Coles and Woolworths of inflating fuel prices to make their discounts appear more generous than they are, as consumer watchdog the ACCC investigates the practice.
Metcash, which supplies groceries to supermarkets under the IGA banner, says the big supermarkets’ practice of combining fuel with grocery discounts makes it more difficult for independent stores to compete.
“What we see as unfair about that is the price of petrol has been increasing and as that price of petrol increases then shortly afterwards a very large docket scheme gets put out there by the supermarkets,” Mr Morrice says.
“The coincidence between petrol prices going up and followed shortly after by very large discounts on fuel is at a time when they [Coles and Woolworths] own the fuel distribution and they own the supermarkets – that’s the issue.”
Myer chief says high labour costs to blame for struggling retailers
Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes has blamed high wages for Australian retail’s current troubles, during a speech to the Australian Retail Association’s annual Australian Retail Awards in Melbourne.
“[Top Shop or River Island merchandise is] picked out of a distribution centre in Birmingham at £4.30 ($7) an hour, and we’re trying to get that same product picked at a distribution centre in Altona at $27 an hour, and if it’s after hours in-store, it’s $40 to $50 an hour,” Brookes says.
“When we open on Anzac Day, I think the cheapest person is $62 an hour because of the penalty rates. We ain’t world-competitive, and we ain’t got a chance of being world-competitive.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.14% to 15567.74. The Aussie dollar is down to US92.93 cents.


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EBay Inc. is bullish on the next three years, projecting revenues to grow more than 50 percent to at least $21.5 billion in 2015, from $14.1 billion in 2012.
This story first appeared in the March 29, 2013 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today.
“Led by mobile, a commerce revolution is under way,” eBay Inc. president and chief executive officer John Donahoe said.
“Technology is creating a new Web-enabled retail interface, a new seamless, multiscreen commerce experience that connects consumers anytime, anywhere. This will expand shopping beyond conventional store environments and e-commerce sites. How we shop is being transformed, and eBay Inc. intends to be a leader in this new commerce world.”
EBay is driving growth in its core Marketplaces, PayPal and GSI Commerce divisions and leveraging its commerce technologies, including mobile, to “enable” new experiences for consumers and retailers. In 2015, the company expects to enable $300 billion worth of global commerce, compared to $175 billion in 2012. EBay defined “enabled commerce” volume as the total commerce and payment volume of its three business units.
Donahoe said eBay’s mobile capabilities across all operating systems and devices are competitive advantages and that in 2013, the company expects to generate $20 billion in mobile commerce and payments volume. The company also expects compound annual non-GAAP earnings per share growth of 15 to 19 percent from 2012 to 2015. Free cash flow is anticipated in excess of $11 billion over the three-year period.
By 2015, Marketplaces is expected to achieve revenues of $10.5 billion to $11.5 billion, representing a 14 percent compound annual growth rate at the midpoint; PayPal sees revenue growth of $9.5 billion to $10.5 billion, for a 22 percent compound annual growth rate at the midpoint, and GSI forecasts $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion in sales by 2015, representing a 14 percent compound annual growth rate at the midpoint.
On the fashion front, eBay is working with Fifth & Pacific Co. on some innovative ideas and technology for consumers, and last November launched the eBay Fashion app in Russia, eBay Moda.
“The app is already one of the most downloaded lifestyle apps in the Russian iTunes store. A gentleman recently used the app to buy 30 pairs of Giorgio Armani shoes in a single transaction for $7,400,” said Wendy Long, vice president of eBay Marketplaces.
Ebay also became more attractive and relevant through improved merchandising, especially in key categories like fashion, according to Christopher Payne, senior vice president of eBay Marketplaces North America.


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While the manufacturing sector typically drives recessions and recoveries more than the service sector, the opposite has been true during the pandemic recession. Finally this month, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s April business surveys point to a solid increase in service sector activity as well as continued strength in manufacturing activity in the New York-Northern New Jersey region, marking the first signs of widespread growth since the pandemic began. While manufacturing activity had been increasing through much of the pandemic, service sector activity had declined for thirteen straight months before finally increasing at its strongest pace in years in our April survey. About half of service sector firms said their revenues were currently at or above normal levels, as did two-thirds of manufacturers. All in all, regional firms expressed widespread optimism that conditions would improve in the months ahead.
Within the service sector, leisure and hospitality firms saw a particularly large increase in activity in the April survey, their first increase since the pandemic began, and there were sturdy increases in the retail and wholesale trade sectors as well. Employment moved somewhat higher among service firms and continued to rise significantly among manufacturers. Looking ahead, firms in both surveys indicated the strongest hiring plans on record, were very optimistic about future conditions, and broadly expect activity to be higher in six months.
Notably, as has been the case for months, the surveys point to significant increases in both input prices and selling prices—particularly in the manufacturing sector, where input prices rose at the fastest clip since 2008 and selling prices increased at a record pace. The delivery time index in the manufacturing survey shattered its previous record by more than ten points, indicating significantly longer delivery times and suggesting that in addition to paying higher prices for inputs, manufacturers are waiting longer to get the supplies they need.
Supplementary questions in the surveys asked firms how their revenues in March compared to a normal March, and how their revenues would likely change if business conditions were to return to normal in the months ahead. About half of service sector firms said their revenues were still below normal, with a majority of those firms saying they were at least 20 percent below normal. Businesses in New York City were more likely than firms from other parts of the tri-state region to report that revenues were still below normal. Restaurants and other leisure and hospitality firms, as well as education and health providers, tended to be the most negative, with 80 percent and 65 percent, respectively, still seeing revenue shortfalls. On the other hand, more than one in four service firms and almost 40 percent of manufacturers indicated that revenues were currently higher than normal, with the majority of those firms reporting that revenues were at least 10 percent above normal.
The vast majority of those surveyed said they expect their revenues would increase from current levels if business conditions were to return to normal. When asked what factors might restrain their ability to meet demand if it rebounded, the constraints most widely cited by service firms were the ability to procure adequate staff, as well as residual COVID-related restrictions and regulations more generally. Among manufacturers, the most widely cited constraints were availability and prices of inputs.
Richard Deitz is an assistant vice president in the Bank’s Research and Statistics Group.
How to cite this post:
Jason Bram and Richard Deitz, “April Regional Service-Sector Survey Points to A Long-Awaited Rebound,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics, April 16, 2021, https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2021/04/april-regional-service-sector-survey-points-to-a-long-awaited-rebound.html.
The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors.


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Initially, he wore a T-shirt with a picture of Chris Farley during his performance of “Tequila Shots” from his latest album “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen”. Farley, a former SNL actor, died in 1997 at the age of 33.
Many Twitter users also noted that the green cardigan Kid Cudi wore during the performance resembled one worn by Kurt Cobain. The Nirvana singer died of suicide in 1994.
But that wasn’t the only toll.
For his performance of “Sad People”, Kid Cudi transformed himself into a flower dress that he tweeted
was to honor Cobain. Kid Cudi’s appearance fell the same week of the anniversary of Cobain’s death
, April 5th.
“Virgil designed the dress for me,” wrote Kid Cudi, referring to designer Virgil Abloh. “I told him I wanted to show Kurt wa love floral print sundress, and this man made a masterpiece.”
Kid Cudi also tweeted that he’s doing a collection with Abloh’s fashion label Off white
and that the dress would be included.


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Technology has changed the face of retail over the last 15-20 years and the pace of disruption is now quickening with digital transformation being a top priority for many retailers. But does technology change really deliver the benefits retailers expect and desire. Technology without a doubt is the key enabler ...
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While recently eCommerce has taken the spotlight for advances in mCommerce, personalisation, rich content, and social, the bricks and mortar retail store is likely to be the next channel to undergo significant change on a mass scale. This article looks at three current developments in the field of in-store ...
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A 3PL supplier evaluation guide for eCommerce retailers considering outsourcing their warehousing and distribution or moving to a new 3PL supplier. Utilising the services of a 3rd Party Logistics (3PL) supplier for warehousing and distribution is becoming more widespread in UK eCommerce as retailers are looking to capitalise on the economies ...
January 7, 2016Lewis Williams


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As many of you know, today's Cascadia Summit ticketing did not go particularly smoothly. Like many of you, I tried to buy tickets through Ticketmaster at 10 a.m. and was greeted with a message telling me that the two-day passes had not been released. I spent about 15 minutes trying to get tickets that way (I was being stubborn, I admit). I gave up around 10:15 a.m., but went back on about 10:30 to give it another shot. I instead tried to buy just tickets for Friday's match, and surprisingly was able to secure two.
I spent the rest of the day making phone calls in an attempt to figure out what, exactly happened. Those phone calls, unfortunately, did not yield many great answers.
I instead tried to create a timeline of event from Twitter. The combination of what I learned from those phone calls and the Twitter timeline suggest that two things were at fault: A very heavy demand and a glitch with the two-day passes. Quite possibly, no two-day packages were ever sold, which is probably an issue that should be addressed. Don't know that this will make anyone feel better, but here's my reconstruction of events as told through Twitter:
It all started innocently enough with messages like these just before 10 a.m.
The first messages of successful purchases then followed shortly after.
Problems began to surface a few minutes later.
Which then led to speculation that tickets were, indeed, gone.
Shortly after, the word got out that the issue was two-day package related and that single-game tickets were still available.
ticketmaster is still selling tickets to Timbers and Whitecaps games. No double package yet.
@SoundersFC soon confirmed the glitch.
At one point, @SoundersFC said there would be 100 two-day passes available once glitch was repaired, potentially adding to the confusion.
@thomas513 The Timber/Sounders match is nearly sold out if not already. 100 2-game packs will be available once Ticketmaster fixes the bug.
But, as many of us know, that never quite happened.
@cgrin Unfortunately because the Timbers match sold out during the Ticketmaster issue, 2-match passes are no longer an option.
This led to another round of unhappy customers.
Really disappointed in the FO. That makes me sad. #sounders


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Remember the Chrysler 300 SRT Pacer revealed last month? The local arm has just announced further details to the special tribute edition, including prices.
The 2019 Chrysler 300 SRT Pacer has been put together as a tribute to the classic Valiant Pacer of the 1960s. The first obvious connection is the exterior detailing. But strangely, Chrysler isn’t offering the retro cream paint colour it originally revealed.
Instead, buyers have the option of Bright White, Ceramic Grey, and Gloss Black. All three are showcased with special Pacer decals, including HEMI pinstripes down the sides, and ‘392’ badges symbolising its 392 cubic-inch engine under the bonnet.
Speaking of which, it’s the regular 6.4-litre naturally aspirated V8 that produces 350kW and 637Nm. All of this grunt is sent through an eight-speed automatic and into a rear-wheel drive system with a limited-slip differential. In the regular model Chrysler claims 0-100km/h happens in just 5.0 seconds.
“Marking the 50th Anniversary of the much loved Valiant Pacer, we’re excited to celebrate such a milestone with this limited edition car – a revival of the Pacer nameplate for Australian motoring enthusiasts,” said Guillaume Drelon, director of product at Chrysler Australia. “This is truly a modern take on an Australian classic and we’re excited to bring the Pacer back in this exclusive run of fantastic looking vehicles.”
If you’re interested in grabbing a slice of Australian car history (sort of), you better get in quick. Only 50 examples are up for grabs. Prices start from $69,950. That makes it $4000 pricier than the 300 SRT Core on which it’s based.


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FOR Sota Kimura, founder of SmartRyde, it’s been quite a ride since he founded the global airport transfer marketplace in March 2017 to September 2021 when it raised approximately US$1.6 million in Series A funding round.
As a student, he often found himself “in trouble with ground transportation from airport to hotel”. Being exposed to other student entrepreneurs in a co-working space for a year in Kyoto, he decided to solve the problem with his friends.
“We try to solve ground transportation’s experience for international travellers by providing airport transfers’ API to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs),” he told WiT.
By creating a marketplace to connect local transportation
operators and OTAs, its mission is to “contribute to the sustainable
development of local communities through transportation”.
As of August, it has collaborated
with more than 650 transportation operators and more than 25 OTAs, including
top global players such as Booking.com, Expedia, Trip.com, Traveloka
(Indonesia), and Despegar (Argentina).
Prior to Covid hitting his business was focused on Asia Pacific, and he quickly diversified to the Caribbean, Dominican Republic and Mexico, where it has seen good traction since last December. “We have increased the number of business development teams with the aim of strengthening cooperation with local partners,” he said, adding, “I think there were very few companies in travel that increased their team during this period.”
The investment round is led by Angel
Bridge and included SG Incubate, Yamaguchi Capital, SMBC Venture Capital,
Hiroshima Venture Capital, Iyogin Capital, Inventum Ventures, individual
investor and serial entrepreneur Shouji Kodama, Nobuaki Takahashi (NOB LLC),
and Optima Ventures.
Kimura is optimistic about the future. “I think that there will be a recovery in the demand
for international travel from countries to areas where entry restrictions have
been eased, such as what some areas in Latin America and the Caribbean have already
experienced so far.”
In addition, the pandemic has also
accelerated digitisation of local transportation companies such as taxis, car hire, limousines and buses. “Travellers will not only be
able to travel more online, but will also be able to sell previously fragmented
ground transportation in conjunction with air transportation and hotels, making
personal travel even more flexible than packages. I think it will be realised in
the near future.”
The biggest challenge facing the company is the recovery situation in
Asia Pacific. Being based in Japan, it had hoped for a quicker recovery in the
region but Kimura is hopeful that once borders open, the region will once again
offer potential for further growth.
The biggest opportunity is the quickened utilisation of technology and data, especially on the supplier side. “This part can be made more efficient by introducing technology. Furthermore, by acquiring and utilising local traffic data, it will be possible to develop personalised products like city transfers, charters and tour taxi services.”
• Featured image credit: SmartRyde


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AMD Turns To Ex-Nvidia Star To Jump-start Fusion8:27 PM EST Thu. May. 27, 2010
Advanced Micro Devices is turning to Manju Hegde, the man who brought the powerful PhysX engine to rival graphics chip maker Nvidia, as AMD attempts to grow its heterogeneous computing ecosystem ahead of the launch of its first Fusion processors in the first half of 2011.
Hegde, who helped integrate PhysX hardware acceleration into Nvidia’s CUDA framework after Nvidia’s acquisition of his company, Ageia, was named head of AMD’s Fusion Experience Program on Thursday. In his new role, he said he'll be charged with building the developer ecosystem for what Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD calls Accelerated Processing Units, or APUs, as well as spreading the Fusion message to consumers, analysts and media.
“It’s a complex set of things that need to be executed,” Hegde told CRN on Thursday. “We’re making Fusion the center of our road map. When you’re changing the entire ecosystem, changing how developers program a processor, you don’t do that for just one processor. You do it for a road map. Developers want to develop for an entire road map that’s forward-compatible.”
AMD is expected to release its first APU, code-named Llano, in the first half of 2011. That processor and future chips on the Fusion product road map will incorporate both a discrete central processor and a discrete graphics processor on a single silicon die, Hegde said.
“Think of the advantages of that in terms of the buses, the power management capabilities, the tremendous bandwidth, the tremendous performance-per-watt advantage, which is something AMD has always done well and which we will continue to exploit,” he said.
Hegde said AMD, which acquired graphics chip maker ATI Technologies in 2006, was in a unique position to bring into the mainstream so-called heterogeneous computing that takes equal advantage of the strengths of both the CPU and the GPU.
“I think there’s a reason why AMD has chosen to go Fusion. Look at the company and its strengths. We can leverage a real competitive advantage,” he said.
AMD would be the company to take heterogeneous computing out of the high-performance compute (HPC) world and into the consumer space, Hegde said. But even though mainstreaming Fusion was AMD’s top priority, he added that AMD’s development of its APUs would not preclude the continued advancement of its discrete graphics product lines -- all the way up to the company’s FireStream graphics cards which compete at the high-end of the GPU market with Nvidia’s Quadro and Tesla products.
“AMD was for many years a top vendor of CPUs and after the merger with ATI, which was one of the world’s top vendors of high-performance GPUs, you now have tremendous capability in both these spaces. And it’s not the capability of a single part or product, but the capability of the experience in both areas that we have in our team.”
Next: AMD Gearing Up For Battle
The poaching of Hegde from Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia signals that AMD is gearing up to move aggressively on the GPU and heterogeneous computing fronts after years on the sidelines, said Jon Peddie, principal analyst at Jon Peddie Research.
While ATI Technologies was an important first-mover in GPU computing beginning in the late 1990s with a promising parallel programming initiative at Stanford University, after ATI’s acquisition by AMD in 2006 that effort tailed off, Peddie said.
Nvidia stepped in, investing millions of dollars in developing its proprietary CUDA architecture and programming language while also evangelizing GPU computing and winning over HPC system builders with its Tesla Preferred Program and other loyalty-building initiatives in the custom systems channel.
“ATI, or I should say AMD, took their eye off the ball of GPU computing. But Nvidia didn’t. And when Nvidia commits to something, they put their all into it,” Peddie said. “So today, CUDA is by far the most widely used and robust programming platform for parallel computing that exists in the world.
“So now AMD has its house in order. They’ve completed their smart fab strategy, the Intel lawsuit is behind them and now they’re ready to get really rolling on GPU computing.”
A major difference between the approaches by Nvidia and AMD to GPU computing is that the former has developed its proprietary CUDA framework, while the latter says it’s committed only to open standards like the OpenCL heterogeneous programming language that can work on any vendor’s hardware. Nvidia GPUs also support OpenCL, but CUDA programs will only run on Nvidia hardware.
“Our strategy is to embrace open standards all the way through. We’re comfortable that we’ll have to win with our hardware. But even with that philosophy, you have to deal with the reality that GPU programming is still relatively new,” Hegde said.
“If you look at a GPU and a CPU, and you want heterogeneous computing, quite frankly, it’s not as easy to program a GPU as a CPU, though much progress has been made. So we’ve got some plans in place to simplify that process and kind of hide the complexity from the developer.”
Next: One Partner’s Skepticism
Hiring Hegde was a good strategic move by AMD, said one West Coast-based custom system builder who partners closely with Nvidia on HPC accounts. But the system builder, who asked not to be named, also called Hegde’s public role with AMD “curious.”
“If they bring him on board, with his experience on the CUDA team, it just seems more natural that it would be to kick start their Stream initiative, not the Fusion project in 2013 or whatever,” the system builder said, referring to AMD’s seemingly muted effort in recent years to compete with Nvidia in the HPC space with its FireStream products.
“To be frank, the problem with AMD is that the future is always 12 months away with them. AMD has the hardware, but the Stream team is so small and they have limited resources, so unless the push comes from the top that we’re going to invest and do this at the level that Nvidia has with CUDA, it’s not going to happen.”
But Hegde was adamant that GPU computing, and by extension heterogeneous computing, needed to move beyond what he called “an island” in academia and the HPC market.
“The APU essentially delivers on the promise of GPU computing, the promise that’s been around three, four, five years. Some segments of the market have already bought into it, like some portions of HPC,” he said.
“What I think the APU does is take that promise and deliver it to the mainstream. It addresses power-per-watt, which is a huge consideration in the consumer space. Consumer applications typically have smaller, more granular workloads, so movement between the CPU and GPU is crucial. It’s very tough to do this with discrete parts on a platform, but it’s possible with them being on the same die.”
With CUDA, Peddie said Nvidia’s GPU computing initiative is “far out ahead of everybody else in terms of mindshare and developer toolkits and everything else.” But the analyst said AMD is fully committed to changing the game entirely with Fusion.
“The AMD people I spoke to recently said this is bigger than Hammer,” he said, referring to the code name for AMD’s groundbreaking move to a 64-bit processor architecture in 2003.
“They say that Fusion is going to be an even bigger push than that. That’s saying a lot. And Manju is the perfect guy for this.”


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Like a rider hailing an overcrowded uberPOOL heading to O’Hare on a busy weekday, the City of Chicago has joined the feeding frenzy surrounding the recently disclosed and controversially handled Uber breach.
At the recent 2017 GreyCastle Cybersecurity Symposium: Generation Cyber, I had the pleasure of presenting the “Top 10 Legal Pitfalls to Avoid in Relation to a Data Breach.”
For years now, business organizations have had a ready and reliable defense to the customer class-action lawsuits that inevitably follow whenever a new data breach is announced: You can’t sue us because any damage from the breach is purely speculative unless the names, addresses, credit card numbers, etc., that were stolen in the attack have actually been misused for fraudulent purchases or identity theft. No harm (yet), no foul.
As we have noted previously on the new DFS cybersecurity regulations, 23 N.Y.C.R.R. Part 500, the regulatory process is—by definition—vastly more swift and adaptable than the legislative process. What may get bogged down in legislative committee for months or years can be hammered out in a matter of days in the administrative state.


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Poland considers Huawei ban after spying arrestJanuary 14, 2019
New BBC Radio 2 breakfast host Zoe Ball debut hailed by the bossJanuary 14, 2019
Travel bargain hunters have struck lucky with Cathay Pacific by snapping up first-class tickets at a fraction of the price.
Article by [author-name] (c) Business News - Markets reports and financial news from Sky
- Read full story here.


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Vodafone has announced that it will offer the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone as an exclusivity to its UK customers.
The phone is an Android-based model that comes with 16GB onboard storage (that can be expanded to 48GB thanks to a microSD card), a Snapdragon 1Ghz processor, a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display - possibly with a resolution of 480x800 pixels - and a 5-megapixel camera.
The latter offers HD video recording, the first Android phone to allow this. Initially, Vodafone announced that the phone would come with a Google Chrome browser but sadly it seems that it was an unfortunate oversight. Other than that, the Galaxy S will run on Android 2.1.
The phone is currently on pre-order at Vodafone with contract prices set to be unveiled at a later stage. We expect it to go on sale on 24-month contracts worth £35 and more.
The Galaxy S is the latest model to join Vodafone's growing Android family, with Sony Ericsson's X10 range, HTC popular model, Google's Nexus One, Samsung's Androids and Vodafone own range making the rest of it.


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Orange has joined the mobile phone price war, cutting the price of its prepaid package Just Talk to #79.99 including VAT.
The service includes a Motorola or Philips handset and 10 minutes of talk time.
Instapaper to 'go dark' in Europe until it can work out GDPR compliance
James Robbins of ArrowXL says that AI is no longer 'tomorrow's technology'
Staff told to beware of "unusual sounds" after an employee reported mystery symptoms
Sophisticated malware comprises code previously used to attack Ukraine


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Hershey's introduces candy bar with no chocolate
Hershey's is releasing its first new candy bar since 1995. Hershey's Gold is a caramelized creme bar with peanut and pretzel bits. The candy bar is not made with any chocolate. It will be available on Dec. 1, and celebrates Hershey's official sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Hershey's Gold is only the fourth candy bar flavor in the company's 117-year history after milk, dark and white creme chocolate bars.
Apple is on its way to being the first company worth $1 trillion. Overnight, the stock soared after it reported blowout earnings and made Apple worth almost $900 billion. That number doesn't include sales of the iPhone X, which hits stores Friday.
President Trump leaves on a trip to Asia. He'll visit Japan, China, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam. North Korea and trade will be on the agenda for those meetings.
Starbucks is launching a branded credit card with Chase. A prepaid debit card will come later. The company said both cards will allow customers to earn Starbucks rewards when they spend. Starbucks is selling its Tazo tea business to Unilever for nearly $400 million.
NBC 10 News contributed to this report.


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Mahindra joined hands with Nairobi Police Services as Mahindra delivered 100 units of Scorpio cab Pickup trucks to become the first Indian automaker in Kenya to lease vehicles to government services.
Company Chairman Anand Mahindra tweeted a post sharing images of Scorpio which is painted in the Nairobi Police Blue. He also retweeted that Nairobi Police has received 100 units of Mahindra Scorpio cab pickup trucks. Anand Mahindra’s tweet reads “Nairobi, Kenya. We’re delighted to be a part of the Police Service team. The ‘Beast’ under the bonnet of the Scorpio is at their service!”
The Scorpio is also used as a Police car in India as well and is one of the most popular SUVs in the Mahindra Fleet. The Scorpio offered to Nairobi Police is the previous generation model.
The SUV gets the 2.2-litre mHawk, a four-cylinder diesel engine capable of producing 138 bhp of maximum power at 3,750 rpm and 320 Nm of peak torque between 1500-2800rpm. The engine is mated to a 6-Speed manual transmission. The Scorpio carries on with its imposing front grille with chrome inserts, 17-inch alloy wheels, ORVMs with side turn indicators, tailgate with chrome applique, sleek red lens LED taillights, and much more. It also gets factory-fitted accessories like body-hugging bumpers, fog lamp garnish set, decals, parking cover, alloy wheels, headrest-mounted DVD touchscreen, scuff plates, carpet mat set, and much more.
The new-gen Scorpio is around the corner which will be a massive update over the current one.
The next-gen Scorpio will be powered by the same petrol and diesel engines that power the Thar and the XUV700. The petrol engine will be the turbocharged 2.0-litre mStallion unit which will produce around 150 hp. The diesel engine will be a 2.2-litre mHawk unit which will produce power around the similar 150hp mark. Transmission options will include a manual and an automatic transmission. The next-gen Scorpio will get an option of AWD as well for the diesel powertrain


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According to the recent data released by the Telecom Authority of India (TRAI), Atria Convergence Technologies Private Limited (ACT, ACT Broadband) has a subscriber base of 9.4 lakh in the quarter ended in march 2016, reporting an addition of 80,000 new subscribers. Its customer data in December 2015 quarter was 8.6 lakhs.
TRAI’s report shows that there is a close competition between Airtel and ACT in terms of subscriber additions. In the quarter ended in March 2016, Airtel has added 70,000 wired broadband subscribers. However, Airtel already has a much higher wired broadband subscriber base of 17.4 lakh.
Until November 2015, both ACT and Bharti Airtel had added 230,000 subscribers. In December 2015, Airtel added 2.6 lakhs subscribers and ACT added 2.5 lakhs subscribers. By the end of 2015, Airtel registered a total of 16.7 lakhs subscribers for wired internet subscription, whereas ACT added 8.6 lakh subscribers.
In the wired broadband sector, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) still leads the game. Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Atria Convergence Technologies Private Limited (ACT, ACT Broadband) and You Broadband (You BB) follows BSNL.
In the March 2016 quarter, MTNL lost 10,000 subscribers, while BSNL added 20,000 subscriptions for wired broadband.


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New and used car price inflation slowed in the third quarter to its lowest level this year, vehicle risk intelligence company TransUnion Auto Information Solutions said yesterday.
TransUnion said that its latest vehicle pricing index for the third quarter showed inflation touched 2.3 percent for new cars and 2.1 percent for used cars.
The strength of the new car market this year has been partly attributed by motor industry analysts to improved vehicle affordability caused by low new vehicle price inflation, which has resulted in a real reduction in prices after taking inflation into account.
The improved affordability of new cars has also drawn prospective used car consumers into the new vehicle market, which in turn has helped to depress used car prices and trade-in values.
Mike von Höne, the chief executive of TransUnion, said that both the new and used car markets remained relatively strong, with the used car market experiencing positive sales growth of 4.1 percent for the quarter.
Von Höne added that the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) sales statistics showed that new passenger vehicle sales increased by 12.5 percent year on year in August and TransUnion Auto expected this double-digit trend to continue for the remainder of this year.
Von Höne said that the lower growth in the used car market had led to a further narrowing of the sales ratio between new and used cars to 1.63 used cars for every new car financed in August, from 1.88 used cars for every new car sold in May this year.
Von Höne said: “Interestingly, around 80 percent of all new and used cars financed are priced at less than R200 000. When one considers that only 15.5 percent of all new cars fall within this price bracket and 66.5 percent cost more than R300 000, it’s clear consumers remain extremely price sensitive.”
He added that this appeared to be affecting dealers, who were buying and retailing further below the TransUnion Auto Dealers’ Guide values.
TransUnion’s vehicle price index measures the year-on-year price inflation of a market-weighted basket of new and used vehicles.
The index is calculated from data received by TransUnion on vehicle financing registrations from all of the major banks and vehicle finance houses plus the monthly sales returns from thousands of dealers.
Von Höne said TransUnion dealer return information indicated that the premium and budget used sectors were experiencing the most pressure.
He said the premium market was under pressure because of the narrowing price gap between new and used cars, while the budget sector was being driven by high levels of competition between dealers, brands and marques.