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AN AGREEMENT in principle between SABMiller and Coca-Cola Amatil to dissolve their local beer joint venture pending a takeover bid by SABMiller for Foster's Group has turned speculation to the next chapter in the bust-up of the country's biggest beer and wine group.
This column reported last month that SABMiller, one of the world's largest brewers and which has a small presence in the Australian beer market through its Pacific Beverages joint venture with Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA), had spent the past few months working with lawyers to sort out legal and commercial issues relating to its joint venture with CCA that had prevented it making a lone bid for Foster's.
That in-principle agreement, which will be triggered only if SAB bids for Foster's, is understood to include SAB paying CCA a sum of money, which some believe could be as high as $350 million, as well as walking away from its 50 per cent stake in the business and the $120 million Bluetongue Brewery in New South Wales.
While such a deal would make CCA a tidy one-off profit, it loses some of its blue sky growth. It would also lose a powerful partner at a time when CCA's lucrative co-pack agreement with Jim Beam is under threat following a decision made in December by Jim Beam's owner Fortune Brands to sell its global spirits arm.
The sale of Jim Beam wouldn't trigger a loss of licence with CCA, but if Diageo or Pernod Ricard, the front runners to buy Jim Beam, acquired the spirits giant they would want to get the brand back as soon as possible and run it through their own distribution system with their other brands. For CCA, this would mean a pay-out for the licence or a wait until the contract expired.
The talk from a number of industry sources is that informal discussions have already begun between one of the bidders for Jim Beam and Australian distributors about a new distribution agreement.
An industry estimate of the co-pack margin earned by CCA is $15 million. To lose this would not only hit its bottom line, but would impact the economics of its alcohol distribution platform as it would struggle to cover its overheads without it.
With so much potential change, it will be interesting to see if CCA boss Terry Davis makes any statements about its alcohol strategy when he releases the profit results of the food and soft drinks giant tomorrow.
Against this backdrop, the big question is whether SABMiller, or another potential bidder, pounces on Foster's before or after it releases its scheme booklet in late March. Whatever the case, a demerger appears to be more complicated than most had believed given some poor management and board decisions at Foster's over the past couple of years, including a decision to push on with the roll-out of a single integrated platform, known as Project Core Operations, across its beer and wine business, even after it announced last April it would demerge the two businesses and list them separately on the ASX.
Instead of adjusting the roll-out from an integrated platform to two separate platforms back in April, Ian Johnston and the board proceeded with a common platform. This decision is the key reason why the beer and wine businesses will remain joined at the hip until June 2013. More importantly, it will cost Foster's $42 million to separate the IT platform. Its overall costs of demerging, $150 million, are far greater than other demergers such as that of PBL, which was less than $40 million.
It also makes it more complicated for a bidder to buy the beer or wine business because the core operation of both businesses, including orders, delivery, receivables and sales, are enmeshed on the one platform.
It is highly speculated that private equity operators TPG and KKR are interested in the wine business. Any bidder will need to have a good relationship with the owner of the beer business due to the integrated platform.
No matter what advice Johnston and the board received about the platform, the buck stops with them. What they did is akin to renovating a house only to decide part way through to sub-divide the house - but instead of modifying the renovation, they waited until the end and then worked out how to split it. Reports might show it saves money or is quicker, but the brutal reality is a demerged company won't be truly separated for two years. Interestingly, Foster's head of IT left in December. It seems the board, headed by David Crawford, not only botched the front end of Foster's but also the complicated back end.
It is no surprise then that a wall of scepticism has emerged over Foster's recent notch-up in beer market share. Despite company denials that it wasn't due to discounts, the beer division sold more volume on promotion. Mutterings around the traps were that it was throwing in 18 cartons of beer as a bonus for every one pallet.
Industry sources say that in October, November and December price realisation for Foster's was zero, versus 3 per cent for Lion Nathan. Promotional stunts are not sustainable and have prompted talk that it is fattening the pig for market day.
It would have been much cleaner, easier and fairer to shareholders if the company had announced a demerger and a trade sale at the same time to flush out the best deal. But then again, that might have alerted the market to some of the poorer management and board decisions. But in typical Foster's style, key directors are part of the new demerged entities.


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On September 21, 2019, two females and one male entered Victoria Secrets in the Capital City mall and stole over $1600.00 worth of bras. The subjects fled in a silver Chevrolet van.
On October 4, 2019, security at the Capital City Mall saw one of the females back in the mall and called 911. LATPD officers responded and took Andrea Pacheco-Vega into custody when they identified her as one of the suspects from the retail theft that occurred on 9/21/19. Pacheco-Vega was arrested and charged with Retail Theft, Conspiracy to Commit Retail Theft and Possession of Instruments of Crime. She was committed to the Cumberland County Prison, unable to post bail.

domain: news


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New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) After a 19-year-old pizza delivery boy in South Delhi district here tested positive for COVID-19, all his 16 ‘high risk contacts’ have tested negative for the virus, the administration said on Monday.
According to B.M. Mishra, District Magistrate (South) no person in the 72 houses within a five-kilometre radius of Malviya Nagar, where the boy delivered food, has developed any symptoms.
“All high risk contacts (16 people) of the pizza delivery boy, including the owner of the eatery where he worked and other workers, have tested negative,” the DM said.
Last week, the delivery boy associated with a pizza chain was tested positive for coronavirus.
After the boy tested positive on Tuesday, the authorities immediately decided to quarantine his 16 colleagues at the outlet.So far, Delhi has recorded more than 2,000 coronavirus cases with 45 deaths.


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IT was while shopping recently at a farmer’s market in Raleigh, N.C., that Andrea Chiz Plyler realized she was being followed by an enormous mushroom.
The mushroom was, in fact, Mel, the mascot from the Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers chain, but Ms. Plyler, who was with her mother-in-law, did not recognize him as such. When she turned around to look at Mel, he stood motionless, and it unsettled her.
“I am deathly terrified of people in mascot-type uniforms, and he was really creepy because he has almost like this blank stare like he was staring right through you,” Ms. Plyler said in a telephone interview.
It turns out that Ms. Plyler, 25, a law student at the North Carolina Central University School of Law, had recently begun to follow Mellow Mushroom on Twitter. And Mellow Mushroom, which like many businesses reciprocally follows consumers on Twitter, had decided as a promotional stunt to follow some of those consumers in the literal sense — and to bring a film crew.
Six hidden cameras, in places like a portable toilet, a van and inside the mushroom costume, documented Ms. Plyler’s reaction as she was followed around the market.Continue reading the main story
On Oct. 22, Mellow Mushroom posted the video featuring Ms. Plyler on YouTube. The ominous score of a horror movie plays as Mel lurks behind her. When he gets to within arm’s reach, she turns around, and Mel slowly raises an arm and slowly extends and lowers each of his fingers in succession in an oddly menacing wave.
The video cuts to Ms. Plyler happily sharing a slice of pizza with Mel at a table set up in a parking lot. It closes with the text, “Follow us and we’ll follow you,” and directs viewers to FollowMellow.com, a tab on the company’s Facebook page that features several more videos of other Twitter users being stalked by Mel and a second mushroom mascot, Dude.
The videos are by Fitzgerald & Company in Atlanta, part of McCann Worldgroup, which is owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies. Production is by Arts and Sciences and direction is by Adam Brodie and Dave Derewlany.
In early October, the crew secretly filmed about 20 Twitter users being followed by the mascots, and Mellow Mushroom continues to add new videos to YouTube from the outings. The agency used social networks, especially Facebook, to contact relatives and friends to act as confederates — in Ms. Plyler’s case, her mother-in-law — to help coordinate the stunt.
“We have such an irreverent brand that we thought it would be cool and interesting to really follow consumers not just on Twitter but in a real-world way,” said Annica Kreider, vice president of brand development at Mellow Mushroom, which was founded in 1974 in Atlanta and has about 130 restaurants across the country. “Part of why we do things like this is to say that we are a different brand and we aren’t going to give you the same old sales propaganda.”
Brands typically use social networks as extensions of their customer service departments, monitoring Twitter and Facebook for complaints, and mollifying consumers before they get so fed up that they do something like post negative online reviews or rant in a YouTube video.
But brands also increasingly are using social networks in more idiosyncratic ways to win over fans through acts of whimsy.
On Oct. 8, for example, Richard Neill, a Facebook user, jokingly posted on the wall for Bodyform, a feminine care brand sold by SCA Personal Care in Britain. Euphemistic Bodyform commercials Mr. Neill saw as a child, he wrote, gave him warped expectations.
“As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things,” wrote Mr. Neill, saying that he had been jealous he could not also partake in a monthly flurry of activity that included bicycling, roller coaster riding, dancing and parachuting.
But Mr. Neill continued that, far from such activities and from innocuous product demos using blue fluid, when he finally had a girlfriend and that “time of the month” arrived, she changed from “loving” and “gentle” to “the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin.”
Bodyform has fewer than 7,500 followers on Facebook, and Mr. Neill has only about 415 friends on the social network, but the post was shared so often that more than 100,000 users have read it and clicked the “like” icon.
On Oct. 16, eight days after Mr. Neill’s post, Bodyform posted a video on YouTube and Facebook that responded to Mr. Neill directly.
In the video, an actress who identifies herself as the Bodyform chief executive sits at a desk and pours herself a glass of blue liquid from a pitcher.
“We lied to you Richard, and I want to say ‘Sorry,’ ” she says. “What you’ve seen in our advertising so far isn’t a factual representation of events.”
After admitting that during periods some women get cramps, mood swings and “blood coursing from our uteri,” she takes a sip of the blue fluid. A sound comes from her chair, and she adds, “Ooh, sorry Richard, you did know that we do that too, didn’t you?”
The video has garnered more than 3.2 million views on YouTube. It is by Carat, London, part of Aegis Group, with production by Rubber Republic, also in London.
“I don’t think we could have done that with above-the-line advertising,” said Anne McCreary, digital strategy director at Carat, referring to the provocative humor in the video. “But for brands to be relevant to consumers, they have to develop a new way of interacting with consumers that is much more about responding to them.”Continue reading the main story


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Consumer goods companies have traditionally viewed the supply chain as a necessary evil to be effectively managed to reduce unnecessary expenses. But more companies, including Kellogg’s and PDC Brands, are exploring how it can be transformed into a revenue center.
To Rob Birse, VP of Global Advanced Technology for Kellogg, success in shifting organizational thinking about supply chain is measured by two metrics: “One is the level of indigestion you can create in the organization. The other is about the swagger you can bring back. Disruption and transformation is what I do,” he noted at last month’s League of Leaders meeting, a cross-functional gathering of business and IT leaders in retail and consumer goods who meet quarterly to exchange ideas on a range of trends.
More practically from a B2B POV, “we found quickly that it wasn’t about the order; it was about the data we were using to justify the transactions,” Birse reported. “That role pivoted to leading advanced commercial analytics for the business. We really had to change the way that we talked and addressed these challenges with our retailers, and that really changed from a sales conversation to a data conversation.”
A conversation, of course, requires multiple parties. But there’s often resistance to data sharing up-and-down the supply chain considering the hefty investment everyone makes in collecting data to benefit their own businesses.
Instead of adversarial postering, as if one party is working for the other, Sulabh Jain, head of global planning for PDC Brands, suggested creating a value-added partnership where data is concerned.
“We have made our suppliers an extension of us,” he explained. “Now they are more like our strategic partners. We have brought them to the table and are trying to understand their problems to help them out. As an example, Instead of sharing monthly forecasts, we’re sharing weekly POS data.”
Sharing data is one thing, however. Acting on the data — that’s another problem.
“We don’t have a data problem; we really don’t have an analytics problem, either. We have a decision-making problem,” said Birse. “And that’s grassroots commercial decision making, all the way up to CEO decision making. The data presents itself, the insights are there even conclusively driving direction, yet we still don’t necessarily adopt them.”
Perhaps a more basic supply chain management problem is who’s doing the managing. On the positive side, given all the recent supply chain headlines, the supply chain seems to have transformed into a cool gig.
“Because it was such a buzzword, in the last year or two everybody’s now talking about supply chain, how challenging the field is, and with so many opportunities,” said Jain. “There has been an influx of talent as people have been switching careers to join the supply chain. We’re trying to cross train people, bringing them on board with an expectation to add value and constantly raising the bar.”
While the supply chain is attracting talent, keeping them is a matter of freeing them to use their smarts to create a new supply chain profit center.
“Seventy percent of their time is being spent on managing the run site operations, day-to-day firefighting,” said Saurabh Atri, retail and consumer goods GTM head, North America, for Tata Consultancy Services. “We are using tools in technology around automation, analytics, AI to reduce that time from 70% to maybe 10% so that they can focus and go beyond the thought process and mindset from running the operations to thinking around revenue strategy.”
“Measuring those decisions and keeping people accountable is a fantastic opportunity,” Birse added. “Imagine the amount of revenue that slips through our fingers just through pivoting to ‘We’ll just do it like we did it yesterday,’ versus ‘Let’s move forward and do something different tomorrow.’”


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Sony has ceased the production of its PS VR2 virtual reality headset due to an accumulation of unsold inventory.
Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that Sony Group has temporarily halted production of its PS VR2 virtual reality headset. The company aims to reduce a surplus of units that have yet to find buyers, raising questions about the current consumer interest in VR technology.
Despite launching over 2 million units of the PS VR2 since its February launch last year, demand for the $550 PlayStation 5 accessory has dwindled. Sony now has a significant stockpile, revealed insiders who wished to remain anonymous.
Bloomberg: "Sony Group Corp. has paused production of its PSVR2 headset until it clears a backlog of unsold units, according to people familiar with its plans, adding to doubts about the appeal of virtual reality gadgets."https://t.co/tHSl7atthF pic.twitter.com/92w32DohiJ
— Wario64 (@Wario64) March 18, 2024
Market analyst IDC notes a quarterly decrease in PS VR2 shipments since its market introduction, indicating a wider issue within Sony’s distribution network. Nevertheless, IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo is optimistic about the VR sector’s future, predicting significant growth spurred by new entrants like Apple.
“The VR market is expected to expand at an annual rate of 31.5 percent from 2023 to 2028,” Jeronimo mentioned.
Facing challenges similar to those faced by Meta in the VR landscape, Sony’s efforts to populate its platform with enough engaging content have fallen short. This issue is not unique to Sony. Apple’s high-end Vision Pro headset also launched without support from key digital platforms, including Netflix and YouTube.
YOOOO APPLE VISION PRO STANDDDD pic.twitter.com/8qlTCPbgeC
— Ranvir 𝕏 (@Ranvir2612) March 13, 2024
Sony also recently announced the closure of its PlayStation London studio, which is focused on developing VR content. It is a part of broader layoffs that affected other game development teams like Guerrilla Games. These changes reflect the difficulties faced by the VR game development industry.
“The primary barrier to VR adoption remains the cost of the hardware,” Macquarie analyst Yijia Zhai explained.
She pointed out the lack of VR-compatible games as another significant obstacle. Compared to standard titles, the high costs associated with producing VR games deter game developers from entering the space.
However, Sony is not backing down with plans to enrich the PS VR2’s library and introduce support for PC VR games later this year. The company intends to diversify the headset’s uses and potentially stimulate market demand.


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Musk explains why his wealth is no ‘deep mystery’
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, says his $245 billion fortune is fully transparent and isn’t stashed away offshore to limit his tax obligations.
“I don’t have any offshore accounts, no tax shelters,” Musk told conservative satire website the Babylon Bee, adding that his wealth “isn’t some deep mystery.”
When asked if H&R Block could do his taxes, he said: “H&R Block could easily do my taxes. I don’t need H&R Block, I could do it. It would take a few hours. My taxes are very basic.”
The businessman explained that his huge wealth and low taxes are both products of simple math. The wealth is derived from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, which he said were “massively painful and difficult to build.”
Musk is expected to pay what is likely to be the largest single individual tax bill in US history, with federal and California income taxes estimated to exceed $11 billion. He is required to pay the tax in order to receive compensation of more than $23 billion, paid in the form of stock options that would otherwise expire in August.
As the Tesla chief executive doesn’t receive a salary or cash bonuses from his company, he can only pay his taxes by selling stock. Last month, Musk asked his Twitter followers if he should dump 10% of his Tesla holding and pay taxes on unrealized capital gains. His followers voted ‘Yes,’ and thus the selling spree began.
“It’s important to understand, what is this wealth?” Musk said. “It’s not like I have some massive cash balances. My cash balances are very, very low, at least until I sold stock... Really the first time I sold stock in any meaningful way was this quarter.”
According to the billionaire, the one year he didn’t pay taxes was in 2018, and that’s because he had “accidentally” overpaid in 2017 and had a credit for 2018. But the criticism of his tax payments, he said, led him to sell even more stock than required by his options exercise.
Musk also revealed that his fortunes are tied up almost entirely in Tesla and SpaceX, saying “If Tesla went bankrupt, I would go bankrupt too, immediately.”
For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section


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Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G is going to be launched in India on January 19. Ahead of the launch, the listing of Amazon India has confirmed some of the features available in the phone as well as information that the phone will be available through the e-retailer website. The price of Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G in India will be revealed on the launch day of this phone on January 19, but its price is being estimated to be around Rs 57,000.
The Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G is confirmed to have a 120Hz AMOLED display and the rest of the features should be similar to the model that was launched globally in September. Xiaomi phones include great features like Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and 120W fast charging.
Xiaomi 11T Pro Specifications and Features
Display: Xiaomi 11T Pro flaunts a 6.67-inch FHD+AMOLED (2400x1080pixels) display with 120Hz refresh rate and 480Hz sampling rate. The device also has 20: 9 aspect ratio and is HDR10+ certified. It also includes a side-mounted fingerprint scanner along with Dolby Atmos stereo speaker set-up. The phone will come in three different colors which are Celestial Blue, Moonlight White and Meteorite Grey.
Processor: Xiaomi 11T Pro phone is powered by Octa-core Snapdragon 888 processor by Qualcomm. It also comes pre-installed with Android 11.
Battery: Xiaomi 11T Pro packs a 5000mAh battery that supports 120W fast charging. It has a Type-C charging port.
Camera: This phone will have a triple camera setup on the back. This includes a 108MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera with 120-degree field of view, and a 5MP macro-camera. Talking about the front, the Xiaomi 11T Pro has a 16MP camera for selfie.


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The South East Asia Hotel Investors’ Summit returns for its third edition in May and will again feature top executives from both hotel owning groups and management companies and a range of cutting-edge topics.
SEAHIS focuses heavily on the issues facing hotel property investors. What topics are top-of-mind at the moment? Simon Allison, Chairman of hotel owners’ alliance HOFTEL which organizes the Summit notes:
The market in South-East Asia is generally booming, but investors in hospitality properties still face numerous challenges. These include:
• The need to pay numerous fees and taxes, to the online travel agents, to the brands and to the governments which between them can take almost half of what a guest pays the hotel
• The challenge of the sharing economy and of new forms of accommodation
• Oversupply as new properties get built
• The one-sided contracts which some hotel brands impose on them
Google News, Bing News, Yahoo News, 200+ publications
• The dangers of relying too heavily on a single inbound market, like China – as the fall-off in demand in Phuket after the boat disaster showed last year
• Acquisitions of boutique brands by the majors – can these make money for their buyers and for the owners of the properties they manage
The last point is very much a relevant topic at the moment given the vast sums recently paid by Intercontinental for a stake in Six Senses, by Hyatt for Two Roads and by GIC for a stake in CitizenM.
These issues will be addressed at SEAHIS by many of the region’s most senior hotel and travel executives including Suchad Chiaranussati, CEO of SC Capital; Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Minor International; Thomas Willms, CEO of Deutsche Hospitality; Brian Williams, Deputy Chairman of Swire Hotels; Aron Harilela, CEO of Harilela Hotels; Stephan Vanden Auweele, Chief Hospitality Officer of Asset World Corporation (TCC); Piyaporn Phanachet, CEO of U City; Andrew Langdon, SVP Development Asia, Accor; Mike Orgill, Director, Public Policy, Airbnb and Jake Stein, Senior Director, Owner Relations at Expedia.
“Last year almost 50% of all attendees were from groups which own or develop hospitality real estate, said Simon Allison, CEO of HOFTEL. “They want exciting and sometimes controversial content and we aim to deliver that. Our speakers are senior and so are most of the audience, so it’s a highly informed debate.”


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Look's home for Cara Delevingne pictures, video, photos, news, hair pics, clothes, fashion photos, beauty and fashion facts
Cara Delevingne Louis Vuitton Series 3 Launch Party, SS16, London Fashion Week
19th November, 2015
The trailer for Zoolander 2 is officially out, giving us a sneak peak into what Derek Zoolander has been up to. As well as competing with the latest really ridiculously good looking model in town – an almost unrecognisable Cumberbatch – Derek and Hansel also join forces with Penelope...
19th October, 2015
Have you been wondering what’s up with all the turbanned, towel-clad models taking up your Instagram feed? Well, Mario Testino is the man behind these striking shots, as they’re all part of his project, Towel Series. Yep, the photographer has convinced every ‘It’...
14th October, 2015
Cara Delevingne has become an aunty for the second time! The model’s older sister, Chloe has given birth to a baby girl named Juno, aw! The news that Chloe Delevingne was pregnant again only came to...
More Cara Delevingne News


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For those of you aiming to make a dent in your Christmas shopping this weekend, there are many more markets being held around the country to help make this happen.
Sydney side we have the Young Blood Designers Market at the Powerhouse Museum. Featuring a swag of stunning up and coming designers and their wares, open on Friday from 6pm to 9pm, and then Saturday 13th Dec from 8am to 5pm. This market is often a launch pad for young hopefuls into the world of sales, and proves to be a winner amongst shoppers. Some people can’t find the market sometimes – so if you’re in the courtyard, head DOWNSTAIRS past the coffee cart.
Way out west over the opposite side of the country, Perth’s Upmarket will be held this Sunday 14th Dec from 10am to 5pm at Perth Town Hall. Showcasing over 60 retailers and including Leeloo labels Suga*N*Spice and Osier! – it will be massive and not to mention heaps of shopping for original bits and pieces.
On a more tropical note, Brisvegas will have their BrisStyle Markets this Saturday 13th December from 9am to 4pm at the Historic Hamilton Town Hall. Put together by a team of etsy members and sellers, expect to see around 30 stalls from nifty crafties. 4ZzZ will also be broadcasting live from the event! Head to their web site for further details.


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The Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid logo by 72andSunny and Bruce Mau Design has been unveiled and features an abstracted angel-like figure in reference to LA’s original Spanish name “City of Angels”.
72andSunny has developed the logo and Bruce Mau Design has worked on brand application and guidelines.
“Reaching for their dreams”
The angel figure in the logo is, according to the bid team, also an athlete “reaching for their dreams”, who has been “illuminated, lifted and empowered” by the rays of the sun.
Bruce Mau Design president and chief executive officer Hunter Tura says the design framework is “inclusive and optimistic, expressing the positive spirit of the Games”.
You can see how the brand application on this bid website.
“Follow the Sun”
California has year-round sun and the world has also been invited to “Follow the Sun,” to share in the city’s “perennial optimism and reinvention” according to LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says: “This logo captures the essence of LA – a soaring belief that through hard work, creativity and ingenuity, we can follow the sun and reach the highest levels of success.”
The other cities bidding for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are: Rome, which has designed an in-house identity; Paris, which has worked with Dragon Rouge; and Budapest, which is yet to reveal its logo.


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Samsung’s acquisition of Harman hits potential roadblock
WORLD: South Korean media recently reported that Harman shareholders have filed a class action suit against the manufacturer’s board and CEO, Dinesh Paliwal, in opposition of the proposed US$8 billion merger with Samsung Electronics. As stated by Korean news outlet Yonhap, the lawsuit was filed in the US state of Delaware with shareholders, led by Robert Pine, claiming that ‘the deal's price fell short of Harman's corporate value’.
The US$8 billion acquisition would be the largest in Samsung’s history and will proceed should more than 50 per cent of Harman's shareholders vote in favour at an upcoming shareholders’ meeting. Samsung agreed a price of US$112 per share, which is reportedly 28 per cent higher than the price listed on 13th November (the day prior to the initial acquisition announcement), and 37 per cent higher than the average share price from the previous month. However, Atlantic Investment Management, an American hedge fund with a 2.3 per cent stake in Harman, stated that it would vote against the acquisition due to a low buying price in December.
Those filing the lawsuit claim that Harman did not seek competing offers from alternative prospective buyers. This could spell a fundamental flaw in the deal, which, if completed would allow Samsung to become a tier-1 component supplier within the automotive industry, which makes up approximately 65 per cent of Harman’s sales.
A definitive proxy statement was later filed by Harman with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), inviting shareholders ‘to attend a special meeting of the stockholders of Harman International Industries, Incorporated’ on 17th February. The statement notes that stockholders ‘will be asked to consider and vote on a proposal to adopt the Agreement and Plan of Merger dated as of November 14, 2016, by and among the Company, Samsung Electronics’. It goes on to recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the acquisition, adding that ‘The board of directors of the Company unanimously approved the merger agreement and determined that the merger and the other transactions contemplated by the merger agreement are advisable and in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders’.
It has since been reported that Harman has withdrawn its financial outlook and ceased conducting earnings conference calls.
‘The pending acquisition of Harman by Samsung will accelerate connected and autonomous driving innovation and technology deployment faster than if Harman were to remain a standalone company,’ stated Mr Paliwal. ‘The transaction also delivers immediate and compelling cash value to our shareholders. We remain on track to close the transaction in mid-2017.’


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- Special Sections
- Public Notices
a black male who robbed the Apple Market convenience store at 407 N. Bridge St. in Bedford Wednesday night.
The robbery occurred around 9 p.m., according to Bedford Police Chief Jim Day. He described the suspect as a black male, about 6 feet tall with a medium build. He was wearing dark clothing, gloves and a stocking cap that covered his face. Day said eye holes had been cut out of the stocking cap.
Day said the clerk working at the store said the suspect “was very calm and soft spoken” during the robbery and displayed a firearm.
Day said it’s not yet known whether this robbery is related to a recent bank robbery in Lynchburg and the robbery of the Forest CVS.
“There’s a possibility. We’re working with the county on their (investigation),” he said.
Day said the suspect did get cash from the register. He said other area convenience stores and businesses are being alerted to the robbery.
“We would like for businesses to be alert to any suspicious persons,” Day said. “We would caution them to be cooperative to anyone who is committing a robbery, so that they won’t be hurt.”
Day also encouraged businesses to make regular safe drops or deposits to minimize the amount of money that they have in their registers at any one time.
Police recovered some money from the robbery, apparently dropped by the suspect when fleeing the scene, in a yard next to the convenience store.


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Back in 2014, Roman Khan was working for an e-commerce site in Thailand. A year earlier, glasses brand Warby Parker had turned glowing articles about disruption! and how it was upending an industry! into checks with long strings of zeroes. Investors gave Warby $41.5 million in the beginning of 2013 and another $60 million by the end of the year. For someone in Khan’s line of work, the numbers were impossible to ignore. So he and his partner Jennifer Chong decided that glasses weren’t the only products in the world that could use disrupting. In 2014, the pair launched Linjer, a briefcase line. Soon after, they doubled down, adding watches to the product line. They raised $150,000 in 40 days on Indiegogo by selling customers on its ability to replicate Warby’s direct-to-consumer model.
Eight years since Warby Parker started selling affordable glasses, nearly every industry has its own Warby Parker of X. The phrase is now used as a catchall for any brand that cuts out the middleman by selling its goods online to customers. The Warby Parker of mattresses? Casper. The Warby Parker of shaving? Dollar Shave Club. The Warby Parker of apparel? Everlane. Or Bonobos. Or MeUndies. The sales pitch many direct-to-consumer brands make is that their products are put together in the same factories as brands that are charging two or three times as much. (Linjer’s original campaign explicitly touted that.) Labeling all of these brands the Warby Parker of X is helpful shorthand, but also potentially poisonous—sending hopeful entrepreneurs on wild goose chases for new markets, spouting off inanities. Chong heard from a friend looking for his own Warby Parker of X: “The belt market is fundamentally broken.”
The state of belts remains TBD (or not) but the Warby Parkerization of everything has already shaped the watch market dramatically. Unlike mattresses or shaving paraphernalia, though, there’s more to the watch business than just trotting out new product at a compellingly cheap price. Enabled by the internet’s direct line to customers, watch brands have sprung up in every form possible. These brands are collectively filling the void in the watch market that exists between cheap novelty pieces and ones, created by historic Swiss brands, that require interested customers to drain entire saving accounts. The proposition: there’s a sweet spot in the middle.
Take MVMT, perhaps the most prominent—or at least most podcast-advertised—direct-to-consumer watch company. MVMT was founded by two college dropouts, Jake Kassan and Kramer LaPlante in 2013. The pair hit the internet to find a freelance designer to create a logo, and a consultant to point them in the direction of factories. They funded themselves through a successful Indiegogo campaign. Somewhere, you imagine, a gray-haired European watch label executive fell ill. MVMT’s practices are pointedly out of line with classic watches—the ones that are steeped in tradition, made by painstakingly studying every piece and precise movement, and cost more than a couple months salary.
But watches from brands like MVMT or Daniel Wellington, another similar line, don’t tick the same way the best Rolexes might—the biggest difference being the cheaper watches’ battery-powered movements, versus the mechanics inside a luxury watch. They’re also meant to play different roles. MVMT’s watches are affordable enough to encourage customers to collect them like sneakers, buying as situational accessories, rather than heirlooms. MVMT, too, sees itself as a fashion brand—one co-founder compares the brand to Supreme. “We consider ourselves to have this aspirational brands,” Kassan says. “We look up to the Nikes, adidas, and Supremes of the world.”
The entrepreneurs behind these lines are capitalizing on something the watch industry fails to value accurately: “The quality of the components are the same as watches that sell for thousands of dollars,” Chong says. Other brands take this even further. Raven, a dive watch company that piles on the color, offers timepieces at prices that aren’t exactly cheap—$700 to $1,200—for goods that timepiece nerd blogs like Worn and Wound obsess over. The global watch market, currently valued at $67.9 million by Euromonitor, it seems, was way bigger than luxury timepiece companies ever realized—big enough, even, for startup watch brands consisting of just a single obsessive.


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Apple already boasts some of the most high-end technology out there. Fuse that with a giant of the sporting world, Nike, and you get a watch that’s damn serious about sports and your fitness, the Apple Watch Nike+.
The watch official went on sale October 28th, 2016. The latest watch is equipped with a built-in GPS, which can assist the runners greatly. And with the smartwatch market at a decline, Apple needs all the help it can get to turn their latest device into a hit.
Which smartwatches were quite popular in the recent past, the market has subsequently suffered a major downfall. Reports state that there was a 52% decline during the last quarter of 2016.
Apple Watch Nike+ looks like a device that could potentially reinvigorate the market. With the top features of the Apple watch series 2 and the fitness related features of the Nike app, it already feels like a winner. The new GPS system being second to none.
According to the Associated Press, “The original watch does a fine job of latching onto your phone’s GPS if you’re running with the phone, but with built-in GPS, you can leave the phone behind.”
This means that traffic won’t affect your run timings. The GPS will figure out when you’re stationary due to traffic and adjust accordingly. For example, if it recognizes that you stopped because of a red light, it will automatically pause.
Another unique feature is its ability to your runs by predicting the weather through 30-minute increments. This way you will never head out and get drenched only because you were oblivious from the fact that a downpour had already been predicted.
The watch also acts like your personalized trainer. You no longer have to bother someone else to train you, technology does that now. The smartwatch provides you with tips tailored according to your targets and past efforts.
Throw in customizable straps that instantly transform it from a gym equipment to a trendy watch for special occasions, and what you have is the best smartwatch out there.
You no longer need a watch for apps and another one to keep track of your fitness. The Apple watch Nike+ does all that. The only negative you can nitpick is the limited ability to move data around.
Many long-time runners have their records saved on different devices. Fitness devices still do not fully support the movement of data and the latest addition to smartwatches does not do much to help that.
Nonetheless, If you’re a fitness freak who loves his tech, I suggest you run as fast as you can to the nearest apple store and get your hands on the ultimate smartwatch.


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Compass Minerals profit beats estimates
* Q2 adj EPS $0.31 vs est $0.26
* Revenue down 1 pct at $178.5 mln
July 30 (Reuters) - Compass Minerals International Inc's second-quarter profit beat market expectations, helped by a surge in specialty fertilizer sales.
The provider of highway de-icing salt and specialty fertilizer said its net income fell to $9.5 million, or 28 per share, from $14 million, or 42 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned 31 cents per share.
Revenue dropped 1 percent to $178.5 million.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 26 cents per share, on revenue of $179.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Specialty fertilizer sales jumped 14 percent to $56.2 million, helped by a 10 percent increase in sales volume.
The company expects its highway de-icing segment to report sales volumes of about 1 million tons for the third quarter, down from 1.9 million tons a year ago, hurt by carryover inventories following a mild winter.
Shares of the Overland Park, Kansas-based company closed at $74.14 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Co-pilot spoke last words heard from missing Malaysian plane |
- EU imposes sanctions after Crimea moves to join Russia |
- Crimeans vote over 90 percent to quit Ukraine for Russia |
- China rejects North Korean crimes report, hits chance of prosecution
- UPDATE 1-Rolls-Royce concurs with Malaysia on missing jet's engine data


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According to Footy Headlines, Nike are set to try something different with Tottenham Hotspur’s third kit for the 2021/22 season by going down an unfamiliar route of a ‘wild berry’ colour.
🚨BREAKING | Tottenham Hotspur’s third kit for the 2021/22 campaign will be released in early September of next year.
— Last Word On Spurs (@LastWordOnSpurs) November 24, 2020
Nike’s third kit for this season is head-to-toe in yellow, based on famous Tottenham kits of yesteryear, including the strips worn in the club’s FA Cup final triumph in 1982 and UEFA Cup win in 1984.
The kit, which also features a navy blue trim on a crew collar, shirt sleeves, and socks, has been very well received by some Spurs fans.
However, it looks like Nike are going to push the envelope next season and try designing the third kit in a colour usually not associated with Tottenham.
Football Headlines claim that while the main purple colour is called ‘wild berry’, there will also be elements of both black and white in the kit, which will be released in September.
It remains to be seen what shade of purple will be used for next season’s third kit.
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By and large, 2018’s downturn in the cryptocurrency market has been a time of loss, even for the most intelligent and experienced Bitcoin investors. Firms have also suffered, laying off staff left and right.
From its peak in early-2018, the aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies has fallen from $830 billion to $130 billion currently — a loss of 84%. But a startup, backed by the illustrious Mike Novogratz, intends to give investors a way to stack satoshis (fractions of BTC) and gwei (fractions of Ether), even as winter continues to nip at this market’s extremities.
BlockFi To Offer 6.2% APR On Bitcoin & Ethereum Deposits
Forbes reports that BlockFi, a company that raised $52.5 million from investors like Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital last July, has launched a potentially game-changing product. BlockFi has reportedly given clients across the globe the ability to make up to 6.2% annual interest on Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits. This “interest account” offering will go alongside BlockFi’s loan offering, which allows users to borrow more than $2,000 at a 4.5% interest rate if they deposit collateral denominated in three leading cryptocurrencies. In an announcement, Zac Prince of BlockFi explained:
“BlockFi is the first crypto challenger bank. Bitcoin and crypto lending, especially to retail investors, is a nascent market. It has though been pushed on by institutional interest over the last year or so.”
The Winklevoss Twins’ Gemini Trust will be backing the novel offering through custody, which has full insurance coverage.
Bitcoin diehard Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, who has invested in BlockFi through his venture fund at Morgan Creek Digital, broke down the offering in-depth in a post on Off The Chain. In Tuesday’s edition of the publication, which Pomp heads, it was explained that the interest accounts could be the highest yielding deposit vehicle in finance. Better yet, it provides compound interest, security and fund safety through Gemini, and a crypto payout system that may be appealing for fervent investors in this space.
Could This Crypto Offering Spark Adoption?
To many, a 6.2% interest rate on their investment could be tantalizing. Per Ryan Todd, a research analyst at The Block, a soft launch of the finance offering in Japan saw big success, with the BlockFi team stating that their trial run in the Asian nation was “very strong.”
BlockFi offering 6.2% on both BTC and ETH deposits changes the game. Will be interesting to see if/how centralized crypto deposit takers and lenders impact #DeFi volumes overtime. A thread:
— Ryan Todd (@ryanjtodd_) March 5, 2019
But, more likely than not, BlockFi’s newest venture is unlikely to spark any form of widespread adoption the world over. And here’s why.
6.2% may seem great and all, but everything is paid in cryptocurrency, meaning that the fiat value of BlockFi accounts could fall, and even worse, by more than the interest they receive. This could single-handedly deter mom and pop investors from allocating their capital to Bitcoin and Ethereum for a deposit on the blockchain-enabled lending platform. Moreover, it can be argued that there are similar (even better) returns in more established investments, especially in traditional equity markets.
But, maybe crypto doesn’t need high-return investment opportunities to gain traction in corporate America and with the general public. Maybe all we need is solid infrastructure. And interestingly, such important facets of this space might be just around the corner.
The Ohio-based Kroger, for instance, recently dropped support for Visa credit cards due to increasing interchange fees. Within hours of the announcement, cryptocurrency enthusiasts began to bombard the retailer with messages, telling the chain to start accepting Bitcoin or another digital asset as an accepted medium of exchange. Pompliano joined in on the fun, pinging Kroger on Twitter in a bid to get the American company to look into trialing support for Lightning Network transactions, whose transactions cost much less than those made on Visa credit. Interestingly, a representative responded, and confirmed that he was in discussion with Pompliano on the matter. Kroger’s potential acceptance of Bitcoin could be absolutely monumental.
Bakkt, a startup integrally tied to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), was also revealed to have made strides in the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies. Reliable sources speaking to The Block recently claimed that there’s a high likelihood the Seattle-based roastery chain could accept Bitcoin transactions in 2019, citing its partnership with Bakkt that reportedly involved a transaction of equity.


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The innovative ways drones are being used to collect information that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to gather are as impressive as they are revolutionary. Drone technology has been utilized for high-precision mapping and studying the health of whales without physical contact, demonstrating the vast potential across various fields. The deployment of drones in the Amazon Rainforest, enabled by a collaboration with Amazonas State University (UEA), has provided invaluable insights into the ecosystem. Utilizing drone technology to measure the Amazon’s air by “sniffing” the environment using specially designed sensors has offered unprecedented understanding around the Rainforest's ecosystem. Supported by the Harvard Climate Change Solutions Fund, this work has profound implications for understanding environmental changes and their impacts.
The success with drone technology has led to the deployment of a fleet of drones to collect air samples at different heights, potentially aiding in the creation of an early warning system for potential changes to the Rainforest. Discussions on these insights will take place at the upcoming DJI AirWorks event, where experts will delve into the transformative possibilities of drone technology in environmental research.
In environmental research, drones have opened up new avenues for data collection. Equipped with sampler boxes instead of cameras, drones can fly around and collect samples effectively, offering flexibility and enabling diverse applications. The standardization of drone models like the M600 has facilitated the development of interchangeable sensor boxes, enhancing the efficiency and versatility of data collection.
Traditional methods in atmospheric sciences such as airplanes, tethered balloons, satellites, and towers have limitations, particularly in challenging terrains like the Amazon Rainforest. Tower-based data collection, while valuable, is limited in scope and unable to provide comprehensive insights across diverse ecosystems. Tethered balloons, once considered promising, have been largely abandoned due to practical difficulties in control and flight. In contrast, drones offer a flexible and efficient alternative, capable of navigating complex terrains and providing valuable data for environmental research.


text: Zynga Gets Acquired Zynga has had a rough 2012, that's for sure. The company has lost nearly three-quarters of its value, important executives have left the company, and Facebook recently distanced itself from the game maker. CEO Mark Pincus still owns a significant portion of the company (50.15% of the voting rights as of August), despite having sold off significant amounts of stock in the initial public offering and subsequent offering earlier this year. Zynga, best known for its -Ville games and Words With Friends is trading at extremely cheap levels. It has almost enough cash on hand (about $1.6 billion at the end of the third quarter) to equal its market cap ($1.8 billion). Zynga is still generating cash flow from operations -- $30.1 million in the third quarter -- and it owns a valuable piece of real estate, its San Francisco headquarters. Pincus retweeted a tweet that said going private should be an option for Zynga. Given the amount of cash it has on hands, it's not out of the realm of possibility to see a management-led buyout on this one.


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Today, Superhot : Mind Control Delete was announced for later this month on July 16. Those who have purchased Superhot prior to that date will receive a free copy of the new game. Those who have received the game from twitch prime drops or through other means will not be eligible. The game itself will be priced at $25.
Mind Control Delete is described as “more refined” and “much bigger” compared to the original. It will be a 12-15-hour game with additional mechanics and less linear levels.
The standalone game is being released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, though developers plans to port it to additional platforms in the future. Not included among those additional platforms (for now) is VR.
“It’s important to remember that VR is not only a different platform – it’s an entirely different way of interacting with games and it comes with its own design and hardware challenges,” said Superhot Team. “Superhot VR was created from scratch as an entirely separate game to emulate the Superhot experience in VR, and it was a BIG undertaking. We aren’t starting any BIG undertakings right now. Should this change, we’ll let you guys know.”
Development of Mind Control Delete began in 2016 as a small DLC for the original game, but it soon evolved into a standalone game on its own.
Superhot was released on February of 2016, and received extremely positive reviews from critics and fans. It would go on to be nominated for multiple awards, such as the Nuovo award and Trending Game of the Year award. The Superhot team started as an entry into a game jam competition, but was further refined and developed into a full game.


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All the News
A look at the three-screen world through the eyes of news and publishing
Do you remember where you were when the news broke about Michael Jackson’s death? What about the raid on bin Laden’s compound? The Japanese earthquake? Or the night Steve Jobs died? What screen did you turn to for details? Chances are it wasn’t your television. More than likely it was your phone, PC or iPad.
At any point in the day or night, we’re likely to have one of those screens within reach. The smartphone radically changed the way we access the Web. And now tablets, with tens and tens of millions sold already, are adding yet another twist to what, how, and where we go online.
It’s no longer just a trend, it’s a fact: today we live in a three-screen world. Businesses have to again adjust their strategies and allocate resources to reach their audiences on still another category of device.
As it has in the past, the news and publishing industry offers a window to see the impact of new online technology and the success of various strategies to address it.
Where are they looking now?
More than any industry, media companies and publishing have felt the impact of the digital age’s fracturing of attention. The transition has been long, painful, costly, and is not nearly over.
Newspapers have been the worst hit. According to Pew Research’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, newsrooms have shrunk by 30 percent since 2000. 1Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, “The State of the News Media 2011,” by Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell, 2011 This is no surprise, considering the staggering revenue impact of the migration from print to digital. In 2006, a reader spent 29 minutes a day on average with a printed newspaper, and generated revenue of $286.84. In 2010, a reader spent less than 1.2 minutes on average on an online news site, and generated $28.89 — just one-tenth the revenue of the old model. 2PaidContent.org, “Infographic: How Print Vs. Online News Consumption Compares,” By Amanda Natividad, 4/28/11
The scales tipped definitively in 2010 when, for the first time, more people said they got their news online instead of from the newspapers, according to the Pew project. The revenue scale tipped as well, with online ad revenue surpassing print revenue, but it is split over many sites, compared to the small number of news outlets that serve (or served) any given geographic market.
The ascent of online news has not been only at the expense of traditional newspapers. Magazines, network news, cable news — all have been eclipsed in audience by online news. Only local television news is a more popular source than online, and that by just four percentage points. 3Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, “The State of the News Media 2011,” by Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell, 2011
Increasingly, too, consumers are getting their news on a mobile device — 47 percent get some of their local news on a phone or tablet, according to Pew. That number is now nearly a year old, and tens of millions of smartphones and tablets have been sold since. In December 2011, USA TODAY’s mobile traffic exceeded its PC traffic for the first time. Tablets — the third screen — were a contributing factor to that milestone.
iPhenomenon: The Third Screen
Could even Steve Jobs have seen how magical the iPad was really going to be, and how eagerly consumers would embrace post-PC technology? We’ll never know, but it’s clear that not just the iPad, but tablets in general are the next great sea change in Internet access technology, guaranteeing and accelerating the transition from desktop to mobile as the primary Web access point.
Apple and its Asian suppliers can barely keep up with demand for iPads from both consumers and businesses. One analyst predicts iPad sales in excess of 54 million in 2012 (along with more than 116 million iPhones). 4AppleInsider, “Apple projected to reach 116M iPhone, 55M iPad sales in 2012,” by Slash Lane, 1/6/12 Thanks largely to holiday gift-buying, in just a one month period, from mid-December to mid-January, U.S. tablet computer ownership jumped from 10 percent to 19 percent. Add in the Kindle and other e-readers, and the number jumps to 29 percent. In other words, nearly one in three Americans owns some kind of tablet device. 5PewInternet, “Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period,” by Lee Rainie, 1/23/12
Business users are poised to add momentum to the tablet phenomenon. In a recent survey by NPD Group, 73 percent of small and medium-size businesses say they plan to purchase tablets this year. 6Macworld, “Small businesses to buy more tablets in 2012,” by Dan Miller, Macworld.com, 12/29/11 Another study has 83 percent of IT departments planning to have iPads in place in the next two years. 7Mashable.com, “Most U.S. Small Businesses Plan to Buy an iPad in 2012 [STUDY],” by Peter Pachal, 12/29/11
Despite its dominance, Apple won’t be the only player in 2012. While Amazon is vague about its sales numbers, it is believed to have sold some four million Kindles in December, led by its new Kindle Fire. Rumors are intensifying about a possible Google-branded tablet running the full Android OS (as opposed to the Fire’s Amazon-ized version). And Windows 8, expected in beta release soon and full release by the 2012 holiday season, is built from the ground-up as a touch-optimized OS, meaning the Windows experience could seamlessly span three screens, just as the Mac OS does now.
So for tablets, it’s all-in for the four heaviest of the tech heavyweights. That means the third screen is here to stay. And like the smartphone revolution before it, it means content and website owners have to adapt yet again — and quickly — to an entirely new paradigm for content creation and consumption.
Tablet Problem? Or Tablet Opportunity?
Yes, it’s another form factor, and more operating system permutations, still more network connection considerations, and additional development expense. But tablets could actually be a bright spot for content owners looking to attract audience and advertising dollars.
This past holiday season, iPad users showed themselves to be valuable customers, buying more and spending more than other mobile shoppers. And a number of studies indicate that tablet users are avid content consumers as well.
“I think maybe 2011 was the year of the tablet to a certain degree,” says Erik Bursch, director, operations and content systems for USA TODAY. “We see users engaging with our app at a very deep level on the tablet. From an advertiser’s point of view, from a presentation point of view, you can do a lot more from a tablet. I think that that’s playing out in how rich applications are in the tablet space.”
More than three-quarters of tablet owners use their device every day, on average for 90 minutes. More than half use it daily to get their news, and many now spend more time on news than they did pre-tablet. In fact, the only thing they’re more likely to use their tablets for than news is to browse the Web. 8Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, “The State of the News Media 2011,” by Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell, 2011
These numbers are likely skewed, as most current tablet owners have pricey iPads; they tend to be higher-income, better educated, often middle-aged consumers. As the market expands down to lower-priced Kindle Fires and others, tablet demographics will likewise gravitate toward a more mass consumer profile.
One area of publishing where tablets have shown real potential is magazines. Wired was among the first to leverage the multimedia and interactive potential of the iPad. Today, titles from The Atlantic to Vanity Fair are delivering reader-friendly versions on the iPad. And the good news is, many are successfully collecting “newstand” sales revenue through single-issue and subscription sales in the app stores.
About 10 million tablet/e-reader users read magazine content on their devices, according to the Affinity American Magazine Study. Three times as many smartphone users, 29 million, read magazines on their phone. More than a dozen and a half titles consistently reach over a million readers a month, with ESPN The Magazine delivering over five million readers a month, and People magazine reaching four million. 9Adweek.com, “Which Titles Have the Largest Mobile Audience?” by Lucia Moses, 12/12/11 Those are impressive numbers even by old dead-tree magazine standards.
The takeaway from all these numbers is this: instead of viewing the third screen as just another device/OS to be accommodated — in other words, as a headache — successful content owners view it as a way to add value and attract loyal readership — as an opportunity. But it’s an opportunity that requires commitment to an outstanding user experience.
Different Networks, Different Connections, Different Problems
Whether a user is scanning the news on the morning train, catching up on industry news on a laptop at work, or reading an in-depth story on the iPad after dinner, they want the same thing: content that’s easy to navigate, content that’s easy to read on the device, and content that’s fast.
“Obviously different screens have different challenges,” says Nisheeth Mohan, Keynote Systems senior product manager. “A smartphone user is primarily going over a wireless network. A tablet user may be going over WiFi or 3G. And a PC user at work is connected to a hardwired, high-speed Internet connection.
“If you really want to optimize and exploit the full capabilities and provide the best user experience, you need to think from a device point-of-view, and understand how it’s being used and under what scenarios. What type of content does a user want to browse on a tablet versus a smartphone versus a PC?”
Many content owners — but by no means most — are beginning to successfully tackle smartphones. They’ve figured out that users on the go have specific needs that are different than when they’re in front of a PC — whether it’s location-based information or text that automatically displays in readable fashion. And they’re recognizing that their sites need to load quickly despite the vagaries of cellular networks.
Tablets are an entirely different story. In most cases, it appears site owners can’t quite to decide what to do with them. Short of formulating a bona fide tablet strategy, two approaches are typical.
In one camp are those who simply serve up the mobile site. The mobile site’s built to be fast over 3G, the theory goes, and lots of people use tablets on the go over 3G, so the experience should be nice and snappy. The problem is, users didn’t shell out $500 or $600 for an iPad to get 4” content on a 10” device. They could use their phone for that. They’re looking for something special — magical, as Steve Jobs said. So no matter how fast the mobile site loads on the tablet, users are disappointed. But at least they’re disappointed quickly.
The other camp says just serve up the full PC website. They’ve got a 10” screen on their tablet, their theory goes, and the site looks fine at that size — it’s practically a laptop. Besides, they have fast WiFi connections. The problem with this theory is, there are more iPads sold with 3G capability than without, and one has to assume that if buyers are paying an extra $100 for 3G capability, they want to use it. But as we learned from smartphones, full websites don’t like a 3G connection, no matter how big or small the screen.
“They’re delivering so many objects — so many bytes are downloaded — they’re not taking into account that mobile networks aren’t able to deliver them as quickly as a wired connection,” says Tim Murphy, Keynote marketing manager for mobile quality. “The New York Times was delivering 126 objects on the page when I checked. That’s a monstrously large website. Somebody sitting in an airport is not getting that in a reasonable time.”
The bottom line is that you can’t just take an existing site, mobile or desktop, and say it’s good enough for a tablet. It will fail from a user experience perspective, from a performance perspective, or both.
Measuring Three-Screen Performance
How does your mobile site load time compare to your desktop site? How does it compare to the competition? And how does your tablet compare to mobile and desktop?
Keynote used its industry-leading measurement technology and extensive monitoring network and partnered with the Yankee Group to do a side-by-side-by-side assessment of three-screen performance for a selection of major websites. Some of the results are surprising, and some were downright alarming.
iPhone 4 and iPad 2 measurements were taken via 3G on Verizon and AT&T networks in New York and San Francisco. The expectation would be that iPad performance should be on par with the iPhone, and in some cases it was. (This would be the result if the mobile site or some variant is being delivered.) But for fully half of the sites, iPad performance was slower, sometimes significantly slower, than the same site via iPhone.
When you look at what’s on the home pages, the reason for the iPad’s slow-as-molasses performance becomes clear. Whether in terms of bytes or objects downloaded, the iPad sites are clearly heavier than their iPhone counterparts. And, inexplicably, in more than half the cases, more home page bytes and objects are being downloaded to the iPad than to desktop browsers.
In general, load times for both iPhone and iPad were not impressive — in both cases, more than half the sites took 10+ seconds to load, and a solid handful tortured users for more than 20 seconds.This is not where the numbers should be five years into smartphone Web browsing, especially when many sites demonstrate that it’s possible to consistently achieve load times in the five- to ten-second range.
What’s equally or perhaps more alarming is that availability is just as unimpressive. You don’t need one hand to count the number of iPhone/iPad sites that achieved 99 percent or better availability. A number were in the 97 percent range. This kind of availability shortfall has been confirmed in other Keynote measurements.
“In a recent mobile index for portals, availability was around 96.3 percent,” Murphy says. “They’re out of commission 3.7 percent of the time. When you’re talking about 29 million people accessing magazine content on their phones, 3.7 percent is a million people, a million potential bad experiences.”
For news and media sites in particular, 24/7 performance and availability is a critical brand attribute. News happens anytime, night or day, and when it does, the site has to be there for users.
“When bin Laden was killed, when Michael Jackson’s death was announced, when it’s really hot news, people are going to fire up their phone, they’re going to roll out the tablet,” Murphy says. “For companies on the 24 by 7 news cycle, knowing how they perform at 9:30 at night can be just as important as how they perform in the middle of the day on a desktop.”
App, Website, Or Both?
There’s no silver bullet for getting content successfully onto three screens, no switch that can be thrown to make content fast and usable. On smartphones and now tablets, site owners are juggling some combination of optimized website, Web app and native app; except for those who are doing nothing at all, and effectively writing off what is soon to be online’s biggest audience.>A look at three major publications illustrates the divergence in approaches. >Wired magazine, long a beacon on the digital frontier, offers optimized sites on the smartphone and tablet, as well as a full-blown digital magazine (aka, “app”) on the iPad, complete with video, animation and interactive content. The iPad edition is free for print subscribers (subscriptions can be had for as little as $10 a year) or $3.99 an issue a la carte. >Wired’s mobile-optimized smartphone site serves up a small-screen friendly version of the content (no pinching or zooming required) and loads quickly. The tablet site looks just like the desktop site, but it also loads quickly over a 3G wireless connection. The iPad app edition requires a monolithic download of the entire issue — best done over WiFi — which is then available in its entirety for offline viewing. >The Financial Times has taken an as-yet pioneering approach, going all-in on HTML5 to create Web apps for mobile devices. >“With the Financial Times Web app, the entire website is downloaded in the browser, so it’s fast to navigate and can be viewed offline,” Mohan says. “One of the reasons native apps were preferred was they’re more interactive and you can do offline browsing. But with HTML5, you have offline browsing capability. HTML5 can make a website experience a lot more powerful and comparable to that of a native app.” >In practice, downloading the site takes some time; a disclaimer on the welcome screen tells users it’s best done on a WiFi connection. This is somewhat of a paradox, because if you’re on a WiFi connection, the full site loads much more quickly than the app version; but if the goal is to have the content available for offline reading, the download makes sense, and the content is formatted for mobile viewing. USA TODAY was among the first to roll out native apps for both the iPhone and iPad, and has embraced all the major mobile platforms as they have come online, most recently, the Kindle Fire, where it quickly became the number one news app. The USA TODAY approach to app content updates is somewhat unique, inasmuch as it gives the user the option to have the site update dynamically as they browse (by default), or they can choose in the settings to update everything at launch, so all content is available for offline viewing.
Users who opt to view USA TODAY via a tablet’s built-in browser (instead of the app) are delivered the full site; the publication’s data indicates that their users skew heavily to WiFi connections rather than 3G.
Whatever the approach, any serious mobile strategy requires effort and investment. Native apps need to be developed separately for multiple platforms, at minimum iOS and Android, for both smartphone and tablet — that’s virtually four apps, for starters.
HTML5 Web apps theoretically simplify the development task, in as much as one app should function acceptably on multiple phones. But a big tweak is required for tablets, to take advantage of the format and deliver a native-like experience.
Still another approach is to build separate, mobile-optimized sites for smartphones and tablets, streamlined for fast loading and usability, but not offering the capability of offline viewing.
Making Hard Decisions, Serious Commitments
Building a presence for a three-screen world requires tough and important decisions. Apps offer greater functionality and offline viewing. But apps are not searchable and won’t show up in Google or other search engine results. News apps have been shown to have stickiness and more intensively engage users, but typically users adopt only one or two favorite news apps.
Publishers and news organizations are trying any and all approaches to regain audience and revenue lost to the explosion of online content. A viable smartphone presence is a given. And an innovative and high-performing tablet approach can provide a real opportunity to capture a loyal, more lucrative audience.The examples of news and publishing hold lessons for website owners in every industry. We live in a three-screen world and none of those screens can be ignored. Users have different expectations and purposes for each. They want content that’s suited for the device, and they never want to wait.
Easy as 1-2-3? Definitely not. But essential for success in our fractured online world. The time to get building is now, before smartphones and tablets are in everyone’s hands, and even as the tech industry is fast at work on a potential fourth screen — connected TV. Stay tuned!


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Mankato Welcomes New Restaurant
If you and your significant other can't decide where to eat dinner, there's a new option in Mankato you might want to check out.
Buffalo Wings and Rings is open for business. Today was the grand opening of their location on Adams Street, near River Hills Mall. The restaurant prides themselves on using fresh ingredients and a more upscale dining experience. There are also lots and lots of TVs to watch sports on.
Todd Fetter, franchisee of the restaurant, said: "So far today people rave about the food. They say the food's wonderful. I just had a table stop me, and tell me that. I said 'we're gonna do what we can.'"
The Tailwinds group invited the restaurant chain to open a location in Mankato and after some deliberation with the corporate office, the decision was made open up shop.
This chain started in Cincinnati, Ohio over 30 years ago and has nearly 60 locations across the country. The Mankato location is the first in Minnesota.


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The Vulcan-1 rocket was launched on Saturday, May 21, at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) site in Mojave, CA.
The third edition of 3D PRINT will be held on October 4-5, 2016 at Lyon Eurexpo in France.
The event will be held August 17-18 at the Crown Plaza Detroit Downtown Riverfront Hotel.
The 11th International Conference on Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing will be held in Nottingham, UK on July 12-14, 2016.
The 5th GALM conference will be held on August 23-25, 2016 at the Cobo Center in Detroit, MI.
This plugin enables readers to visualize project plans and other simulations in 3D within a PDF document.
HP has selected 3D printing software from Materialise to power the new HP Jet Fusion 3D Printer.
The Senvol Database™ of Additive Manufacturing (AM) materials and machines, will be available within Granta’s materials software, GRANTA MI™ and CES Selector™.
The product is being released in beta test with a limited purchase planned for July 2016.
AIAA will hold its DEMAND for UNMANNED symposium on June 15–16 at the Washington Hilton, Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2016 Prototype Today ®. All rights reserved.
All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


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Google stablemate Waymo gave a sneak preview of its newest car self-driving system ahead of the start of the Detroit motor show yesterday. A Chrysler Pacifica equipped with the most up-to-date auto-drive technology was unveiled by Waymo boss John Krafcik at a press briefing in the US city.
He explained that the flagship Chrysler model featured state-of-the-art hardware and software with enhanced sensors. He carried on by saying Waymo’s own developers had revamped vision systems and laser-based lidar apparatus.
Mr Krafcik added that the team had also cut the cost of producing lidar units to approximately US$7,500 (£6,150). This is about a tenth of the price of previous units but still does not match the US$200 (£164) Quanergy and Velodyne LiDAR say they will eventually be able to make smaller ones for.
Waymo’s boss said Chrysler Pacificas incorporating these latest self-drive improvements would be road-tested on highways in California and Arizona later in January. He would not be drawn on when the technology would actually be available for use in production line models.
Last December, Waymo was born out of Google’s self-driving vehicle project and is an abbreviation of the ‘new way forward in mobility’. It is now a separate entity to Google and comes under the umbrella of parent company Alphabet Inc.
The stated goal of Waymo is to make vehicle self-driving systems available to Joe Public before the end of 2020. The developer could have its work cut out to be the first as the UK’s Delphi Automotive and Mobileye NV from Israel say they jointly developing a system which could be on sale as soon as 2019.


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Thesaurus / boon
EXAMPLE SENTENCES FROM THE WEB
A Walmart-Microsoft acquisition could be a boon for e-commerce companies that want alternatives to the digital advertising duopoly of Facebook and Google.
WHAT A WALMART-MICROSOFT BID FOR TIKTOK COULD MEAN FOR E-COMMERCEANNA HENSELAUGUST 28, 2020DIGIDAY
The pandemic’s forced stay-at-home orders was a huge boon to Netflix, adding 26 million global subscribers in the first half of this year, compared to 12 million during the same period last year.
AFTER YEARS OF ‘TOO MUCH TV,’ THE PANDEMIC MEANS THERE’S NOW BARELY ENOUGHARIC JENKINSAUGUST 27, 2020FORTUNE
The coronavirus pandemic has been a boon for the test proctoring industry.
Yet another potential boon for targeted drug delivery is nanotechnology, whereby medical nanorobots have now been used to fight incidences of cancer.
HOW AI WILL MAKE DRUG DISCOVERY LOW-COST, ULTRA-FAST, AND PERSONALIZEDPETER H. DIAMANDIS, MDJULY 23, 2020SINGULARITY HUB
Being groomed offers such immediate boons as protection against parasites like lice or fleas.
BARN OWLETS SHARE FOOD WITH THEIR YOUNGER SIBLINGS IN EXCHANGE FOR GROOMINGPRATIK PAWARJUNE 16, 2020SCIENCE NEWS
Another boon of microgravity is that measurements of the bizarre matter can be made for longer periods of time.
THIS WEIRD QUANTUM STATE OF MATTER WAS MADE IN ORBIT FOR THE FIRST TIMEEMILY CONOVERJUNE 11, 2020SCIENCE NEWS
Renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, and thou shalt gain such a boon as the Murderer gained, the ruler of nations.
SOLOMON AND SOLOMONIC LITERATUREMONCURE DANIEL CONWAY
And now, gentlemen, I have a boon to ask—where there is so much joy, why not make all happy at once?
The boon was granted, and I remember the wave of delight that swept over us, and how we enjoyed the long summer evenings.
WORDS RELATED TO BOON
- good turn
- good will
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.


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Interested in learning what’s next for the gaming industry? Join gaming executives to discuss emerging parts of the industry this October at GamesBeat Summit Next. Learn more.
When I first had the idea for this piece, we looked set for a glorious Web3 summer. Blockchain gaming was the latest craze, following the NFT profile picture hype of fall 2021. Investors were investing, millions of players were playing flagship games, and dozens of crypto gaming guilds were springing up to facilitate ‘play-to-earn’ gaming. The hysteria provoked anytime blockchain gaming was mentioned in conjunction with a major publisher or mainstream video game reflected the reality that pretty much all of them, publicly or privately, were looking closely at blockchain strategies.
This hype cycle masked a series of fundamental threats to Web3 gaming’s longevity which have been laid bare by the ‘crypto winter’ we are now in the midst of. Play-to-earn is suddenly widely seen as unsustainable. Rudimentary blockchain-first games stopped being fun when numbers stopped going up. And yet, it’s safe to say not many are betting against Web3 technology and gaming in the long run. Investment in the blockchain gaming sector has already broken $5 billion in 2022, compared to $4.2 billion across the whole of 2021. The Web3 gaming industry mustn’t take this as a sign that crypto winter will be little more than a cold snap, and pray its challenges melt away. If it hopes to be more than a gaming niche, Web3 gaming cannot look the same as it does today when it emerges from its wintry hibernation.
If it does, Web3 gaming’s current model of siloed economies and experiences will quickly become an insurmountable barrier for the vast majority of the 3 billion or so daily gamers worldwide — for whom high friction equates to low fun. So while investment in blockchain gaming remains considerable, and awareness of it is widespread, there’s a lot of work to be done before mainstream adoption can follow suit. It’s clear that blockchain gaming must evolve by providing fun, ease and choice to scale to the mass market.
Scaling Web3 gaming
The financialization of various in-game items and, most importantly, of people’s time, has undoubtedly created room in gaming for new types of player and even non-playing personas such as investors and gaming guilds. Any successful model of blockchain gaming will therefore undoubtedly include elements of investment and economy ownership. But the most important piece is driving mass adoption. The blockchain gaming play that succeeds with the average players (aka “normies”) will also become the biggest Web3 onboarder on Earth.
Billions of gamers worldwide play games because they’re fun. They rely on free-to-play content and use whatever device is available to them (mainly mobile). A Web3 gaming model that compromises these mass-market dynamics by being blockchain-first rather than fun-first is unsustainable and unscalable. The starting point for any blockchain gaming model, then, should be what made gaming great in the first place — fun. From this position, we can enhance games with blockchain, creating a multifaceted offer that caters to and provides choice to gamers of all types, crypto natives, and everyone else in between. That’s the holy grail of Web3 gaming.
Platforms, not just games
So, if making blockchain gaming viable in the long term is a case of providing scale, ease and choice to players, it stands to reason that we need blockchain gaming platforms, not just blockchain games. Why?
Quite simply because creating a single game that appeals to and retains billions of players is impossible, on- or off-blockchain. Assuming people want to continue playing multiple games as they do currently, it’s not going to be viable to have tens of thousands of separate, unique blockchain game economies. Users would accrue dozens of different wallets and tokens on multiple blockchains — a far cry from the seamless interfaces and payment infrastructures that are ubiquitous in mainstream gaming and entertainment such as music and video streaming.
Rather than the next great game, we should instead be thinking about how we create a blockchain gaming platform that rivals the size and variety of Steam or the Apple App Store. But instead of walled gardens run by Web2 tech giants, imagine what those platforms could look like when married with the key principles of Web3: transparency, decentralization and community ownership.
Retooling Web3 gaming
If we get it right, gaming’s shift from Web2 to Web3 will be much more significant than, say, an upgrade from PS4 to PS5 or iOS15 to iOS16. Rather than a shiny reskin with a few nice upgrades, it’s a chance to rebuild fundamental elements of the video games world, provide fair reward for people’s valuable time and talent, offer ownership of their favorite games and experiences, and give players a say in how the game industry evolves.
If we get it wrong, it will be a case of ‘always winter, but never Christmas’ for Web3 gaming, which will be doomed to remain a siloed series of niche experiences. This is inevitable if we treat crypto winter as a blip rather than a time to fundamentally retool our approach. To enable Web3 gaming to scale, we need to focus on making it cater to everyone, with multiple ways of playing and engaging. Ideally, this needs to be within a small number of multifaceted ecosystems that bring together multiple games under one economy and one seamless UX; avoiding the interoperability constraints of Web2 “metaverse” platforms.
Şekip Can Gökalp is a founding contributor and strategy lead at Infinite Arcade.


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Self Repairing iPhone Glass
Pocket Lint talks to John Aubrey about amazing new discovery – Pro-Fill SOA (Self-Optimising Adhesive), the self-repairing glass that can be used as mobile phone glass which will self repair itself if damaged. According to scientists at the company in Bedford, they have designed a new type of glass that, when broken or cracked, automatically fixes itself.
“For the last couple of years, particularly since interacting with fans on Twitter and Facebook, we’ve had countless requests to fix people’s cracked smartphone screens using the resin we use to mend vehicle windscreens and windows. Eventually, we realized we were potentially missing a trick, so started to work on a project under the radar to develop a revolutionary new glass which mends itself.”
“It doesn’t work if the screen is completely shattered, but for simple cracks it works like magic. The next stage is to actually get it into phones, tablets or maybe even windscreens and we plan a series of meetings with manufacturers to discuss the way forward.”
While this discovery was invented exclusively for April Fools day but who know? It would turn into reality in future. That was an April fool by autoglass.co.uk.


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BooneOakley | Agency Profile, Contacts, AOR, Client Relationships
- Main Telephone
- (704) 333-9797
|Sydney O.||Creative Technologist||NC|
Sample of Related Brands
|David O.||Chief Creative Officer||NC|
|Claire O.||Director, Account Services||NC|
|Laura B.||Art Director||NC|
|Mary G.||ACD Copywriter||NC|
Millennial Dadvertising Opps: Bojangles establishes partnerships with athletes, increases digital spend
Only weeks after the US Supreme Court ruled that college athletes can work with brands, Bojangles has established partnerships with Clemson University's DJ Uiagalelei and UNC-Chapel Hill's Sam Howell. The fast food chain will reportedly continue adding athletes in the upcoming months with the goal of reaching sports fans who have been unable to go to games much the past year due to the pandemic.
We will have to see how far reaching these collaborations become and how smaller and/or local companies take advantage of this new way to spread brand awareness.
Bojangles also added to its marketing team this month with the hire of marketing director Amanda Hall.
So far this year, iSpot reports Bojangles has only spent approximately $18.6k on national TV commercials, around half of the approximately $33.8k it spent within the same 2020 timeframe. It did not end up utilizing this channel after this point last year, and it spent approximately $25.9k on it in 2019. Bojangles's 2021 commercials have targeted sports enthusiasts watching College Basketball, College Baseball, Women's College Soccer and Women's College Basketball.
According to Pathmatics, the company has allocated roughly $2.1m toward digital ads YTD, already more than double the roughly $904.8k it had spent by this point last year. Bojangles's estimated full-year spend of 2020 similarly more than doubled to $2.8m from that of $1.2m in 2019. Since the beginning of 2021, the chain has earned ~215.7m digital impressions via Facebook (37%), desktop display (26%), Instagram (24%), desktop video (6%) and mobile display (6%) ads.
Bojangles's athlete relationships will likely appeal to men, whom the company tends to target anyway. Right now, it's especially targeting millennials. Per Kantar data, Bojangles also invests in OOH and local broadcast. It has additionally showed a high amount of recent interest in search marketing.
Agency & martech readers - Nothing points to upcoming reviews here anytime soon, so seek more immediate opportunities elsewhere. BooneOakley is its experiential AOR. The company handles media in-house.


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JLL to Operate Ivanhoé Cambridge’s Canadian Retail Portfolio | RENX
IvanhoÃ© Cambridge has found a new partner for its retail operations in Canada, announcing Tuesday JLL will take over the operations of the retail portfolio in what the companies call an âagreement to operate retail assets through a unified approachâ.
Although IvanhoÃ© has been actively marketing retail assets for a long time, this is not a sell transaction. There is no fairness commitment from JLL, confirmed a spokesperson for IvanhoÃ© Cambridge.
However, the company says the âvast majorityâ of its retail employees will join JLL Canada. He also indicates that the management team and âkey decision-making rolesâ will remain in Montreal.
According to its website, IvanhoÃ© Cambridge currently operates 24 retail properties across Canada, including some of the country’s best-known malls such as the Montreal Eaton Center, Metropolis at Metrotown in Greater Vancouver and the Vaughan Mills complex. in Vaughan in the Greater Toronto Area. Zoned.
The portfolio comprises approximately 21 million square feet and includes properties in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.
As part of this new alliance, JLL also plans to open an office in Quebec.
The transition will take effect on October 1.
âWe are delighted to bring a world-renowned company to deepen its presence and investments in Quebec,â said Nathalie Palladitcheff, President and CEO of IvanhoÃ© Cambridge, in the announcement. âTo focus on our core business as a seasoned and lucid real estate investor and to align and standardize our business model globally, we wanted to find a partner with the scale, background and expertise to pursue optimizing the performance of our assets. and lead the industry in shaping the future of the retail industry, thereby creating long-term value for our depositors.
âJLL’s global reputation and like-minded culture will continue to support us, while creating career opportunities for our retail teams who join the JLL family. “
JLL is currently the largest third-party commercial property management company in North America.
JLL, IvanhoÃ© is planning a sustainable initiative
The companies say they “share a progressive management philosophy based on achieving sustainable real estate goals” and plan to continue their efforts to improve energy efficiency and asset resilience, thus supporting IvanhoÃ© Cambridge’s goal achieve net zero carbon by 2040.
âRetail has gone through a period of transition over the past decade and more, where the focus is on creating enduring and vibrant experiential frameworks that engage and excite the communities it serves – and the pandemic has acted as a major accelerator of these trends. Said Greg Maloney, CEO of JLL Americas Retail, in the announcement. âRetail is the sole focus of our division and we are excited to expand our expertise and presence in Canada and Quebec, making JLL the largest third-party retail manager in Canada as well.
JLL and IvanhoÃ© Cambridge will develop a Center of Excellence in Sustainable Development (COES) in Quebec to accelerate the transition to sustainable and inclusive real estate.
“Thanks to this alliance, we are expanding our presence in Quebec, a strategic market for JLL’s growth given the dynamism of its real estate sector and its various industries contributing to the Canadian economy,” said Alan MacKenzie, CEO of JLL Canada. , in the press release. âWe also look forward to working with IvanhoÃ© Cambridge to create opportunities for growth, transform ourselves through technology and build strong communities in Canada through COES.
âI especially look forward to tapping into the in-depth knowledge of IvanhoÃ© Cambridge’s retail team of the local retail market to combine efforts and increase the value of IvanhoÃ© Cambridge properties, for the benefit of retailers, their customers and our environment.
About JLL Retail and JLL
JLL Retail has more than 2,000 centers totaling 186 million square feet under management, for rent and for sale. It employs more than 215 retail brokerage experts covering 47 markets in the United States and Canada, serving more than 2,100 clients.
JLL is a professional services firm specializing in real estate and investment management. The Fortune 500 Company reported 2020 annual revenue of $ 16.6 billion, operations in over 80 countries, and a global workforce of over 92,000 as of June 30, 2021. JLL is the brand name and a registered trademark of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated.
About IvanhoÃ© Cambridge
IvanhoÃ© Cambridge develops and invests in real estate properties, projects and businesses around the world. It invests internationally alongside strategic partners and large real estate funds.
Through subsidiaries and partnerships, the company holds interests in more than 1,100 buildings, primarily in the industrial and logistics, office, residential and retail sectors. IvanhoÃ© Cambridge held $ 60.4 billion in real estate assets as at December 31, 2020 and is a real estate subsidiary of Caisse de dÃ©pÃ´t et placement du QuÃ©bec, a global investment group.