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When we think of Dow Jones stocks, we think of solid companies that have delivered steady profits and income over time. We can also think of annual dividend payments. Some stocks in the index – such as Johnson & Johnson and coke – have even increased their dividends 50 years in a row. Such investments are the backbone of many portfolios.
These stocks are usually safe bets. And that’s great. However, that doesn’t mean their stock performance is limited. In fact, there is one Dow Jones stock that could double your money. The digital business soared during the worst part of the pandemic. And the future after the pandemic looks bright. Which company are we talking about? Continue reading…
Ready for the pandemic
One more tip: think of sports, brand strength, and basketball legend Michael Jordan. This Dow stock is none other than the sportswear giant Nike (NYSE: NO). The company’s timing was right when it launched a digital and direct-to-consumer plan in 2017. When the pandemic broke out, Nike was ready. Most of its stores are temporarily closed. And it missed sports-related sales – they were canceled.
But Nike’s digital sales were increasing. The company also focused on its membership program and used its apps to keep fans connected. Nike even launched products digitally through its sneakers app. All of this helped Nike recover quickly after the retailer opened its physical stores.
The company’s most recent quarter has a lot in store for us positive evidence about the future. Nike announced fourth quarter earnings last month. During the quarter, some stores in other parts of the world were temporarily closed. But North America had reopened as vaccinations increased and coronavirus cases decreased.
Quarterly revenue rose 96% year over year to $ 12.3 billion. Of course, last year’s period has been weak due to the health crisis. It is therefore useful to compare the sales figures with a time before the pandemic. And we see growth there too – sales increased 21% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. Net income for the full year rose 126% to $ 5.7 billion. One of Nike’s greatest success stories is the Jordan brand – even 18 years after the basketball player retired. The brand had sales of nearly $ 5 billion for the fiscal year.
Keys to recovery and future growth
Nike’s digital platform was key to recovery. But it is also the key to future growth. Experts say consumer habits will stay the same when shopping online. This is great news for Nike. The company says digital sales now represent 35% of its business – that’s three years ahead of the original plan. Nike expects that number to reach 50% by fiscal 2025.
Nike’s loyalty program members will also drive growth. The company now has 300 million members. They have “proven to be a compelling driver for repeat engagement and purchases in digital and physical retail,” said CEO John J. Donahoe on last month’s conference call.
Currently, Nike stock trades at around $ 160. A look at another sportswear retailer with brand strength shows us that Nike could come a lot higher.
Lululemon Athletica, a maker of yoga-inspired clothing, sells for more than double the price of Nike. But Nike beats this company when it comes to profits and sales. And Nike is trading for less in terms of future earnings estimates. At today’s level, Nike stock looks like a bargain.
Of course, a big surge is unlikely to happen overnight. But Nike has a lot of catalysts to be stable Gains over time – and after all, all the positive news could very well double the stock price – and your money.
This article represents the opinion of the author who may disagree with the “official” referral position of a premium advisory service from the Motley Fool. We are colorful! Questioning an investment thesis – even one of our own – helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that will help us get smarter, happier, and richer.


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HARARE – Hospitality group, Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG), says it has made several organizational changes fundamental to its successful recovery of and will turn the corner this year.
Speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday RTG Chief Executive, Tendai Madziwanyika said the group was engaged in several strategies to restructure its business model and bring new skills, results of which are starting to pay off.
He said the group was pleased with the marked increase in performance starting March and anticipates this trend to continue for the rest of the year
“The fruits of this re-organisation are now being realized as the group has started registering a positive operating performance since the beginning of the second quarter albeit a soft performance in the first quarter of the year,” Madziwanyika said.
RTG has set its sights on strong exponential growth over the 2013-2015 period, after a lukewarm performance in the 12 months to December 31, 2012. The hospitality group lined up a series of measures aimed at enhancing occupancy, average daily rate, revenue per available room and current ratio.
To increase revenue, RTG has targeted volumes’ growth instead of rates hike. The strategies are the brainchild of Madzivanyika, its newly-appointed CEO.
RTG is targeting 50 percent occupancy this year and the rate is projected to reach 55 percent and 60 percent in 2014 and 2015, respectively. ADR is seen at US$87 this year, US$95 in 2014, US$110 in 2015 while revenue per available room is projected to top US$44 this year, US$52 in 2014 and US$66 in 2015, as the hospitality group becomes bullish about the future.
Madziwanyi said cost reduction was the first area of business to respond to the company’s push for more efficient and effective operational systems. He said the group had made significant strides towards achieving its 20013 objectives as adopted by management.
“Results to date indicate that the group, had successfully managed to deal with costs,” he said at the company’s AGM on Wednesday.
He said there was a 15 percent drop in telephone costs due to the heightened use of Skype and VoIP, riding on the fibre optic backbone linking the group’s hotels. Cost sales now stood at 10 percent compared to prior year of 11 percent.
“There was a 64 percent drop in water costs through the roll out of boreholes. 11 percent drop in electricity cost due to use of gas in kitchens and energy saving monitors and 13 percent drop in cost of goods purchased through Central Procurement as compared to November last year,” he said.
He said the challenge going forward was to ensure that the group does not lose sight of the cost reduction gains achieved to date in the wake of rising revenues.
“RTG’s revenue has been on an upward trend since the beginning of the year due to the revenue driving programmes that are now on the market, we are confident that trajectory will be sustained. A marked recovery in occupancies was recorded in March, April and May. May closed with a record high occupancy as compared to the previous years,” he said.
On the same note – the country’s biggest hospitality concern – which operates Rainbow Towers, Rainbow Victoria Falls, Rainbow Bulawayo, New Ambassador, Kadoma Hotel and Conference Centre and A’Zambezi River Lodge says its phased recovery programme would include stabilisation in 2013, consolidation and strengthening in 2014 and expansion in the third year from now.
The group is convinced measures the management has put in place would also enable it to reduce its gearing from 67 percent to 35 percent by 2015.
Measures that management has employed to achieve the set targets include centralisation of sales, introduction of proprietary loyalty and promotional programmes, central reservations office reconfiguration, promotion of e-commerce and jolting inflows from the re-opened South Africa sales office.
Centralisation of sales is projected to contribute 62 percent of revenue at US$22 million, promotional programmes 14 percent at US$4,8 million, central reservations 15 percent at US$5,1 million, e-commerce 3 percent at US$1 million and South Africa bringing in 6 percent at US$2,1 million.
Broadly, deliverables expected to lift the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed group into sustained profitability include revenue generation, enhanced efficiency, tighter cashflow management, enhanced service delivery and refreshed products.
With targeted revenue of US$35 million in 2013 RTG has geared to reclaim its market share of at least 25 percent next year from 20 percent at the moment. The foreign business is predicted to bring in US$9,4 million — a 58 percent rise.
RTG contends that centralisation of procurement for strategic synergies with suppliers would save it US$750 00, utilities (water and power) US$418 000, fibre optic US$165 000 and staff costs 28 percent of revenue. Average costs have already been reduced by 50 percent from 23 percent to 11 percent. More savings are expected following a reduction in staff numbers by 170.
A US$10-million loan secured locally on favourable terms fully restructured short-term debt while US$4,5 million rights issue funds were used for working capital and retiring short-term debt that was saddling RTG.
Central procurement is also expected to ease pressure on cashflows. Cash credit ratio is seen improving to 70:30 by December 2013 from 54:46 in 2012.
Enhanced service delivery is targeted at enhanced connectivity, differentiated turndown, Rainbow drinks, differentiated guest welcome, signature Rainbow fragrance, smart check in and pillow menu for convenience.
The group is coming from a difficult financial period in 2012 when revenue surged by only one percent to US$28 million, leading a loss before-tax of US$4,576 million.

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Taste of Black Cleveland returns to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
From “Blasian” dishes to Congolese fare, dozens of restaurants serve hundreds of people looking for a taste of Cleveland’s black cuisine.
CLEVELAND — Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse is rocking with Black-owned businesses on Thursday, and there’s still time for you to savor the experience!
The annual Taste of Black Cleveland showcase is back for its fourth year and the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Hosted by the Cavaliers and Cleveland NAACP, among others, it began in 2018 as a way for black-owned restaurants to gain exposure, and proceeds go to chefs and owners to cover the costs of participation and also benefit the NAACP and the Cavaliers Community Foundation.
More than two dozen restaurants, food trucks and ghost kitchens are allowed to prepare three signature dishes. Judges voted on food quality, variety and presentation to see who could win a spot as a top restaurant. Every entrant, including husband and wife duo Tiffany and Lloyd Knight of Blasian Fusion Foods, is vying for first place.
“It’s a mix of black and Asian,” Tiffany told us. “My dad was in the Marines and he met my mom in Okinawa, Japan. We do a lot of cooking from all over, so it’s a mix of all cultures.”
“It was meant to happen,” Lloyd added. “Once again, the food is phenomenal. My wife puts love into every eggroll.”
Many restaurants will be at the arena until about 11:30 p.m., so there’s still time to come and enjoy some great black-owned food. Admission is $45 and includes a chance to win prizes and a ticket to a Cavs game.


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Today at High Gear Media, a new land speed record has been set on a toilet and obesity is costing America money at the pump. Ferrari's boss is impressed with the new SRT Viper and Nissan announced production of the Juke-R. All this and more in today's car news, right here on The Car Connection.
Google is courting automakers to build autonomous cars with its technology.
We reviewed the 2013 Volvo XC90 and liked its smooth powertrain.
Chris Harris compared the BMW M3 GTS, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series, and Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0.
Nissan announced it will produce the 545-horsepower Juke-R.
Are the next-generation Holden Commodore Ute and Wagon coming to the U.S.?
Ferrari's boss is speechless after seeing the new SRT Viper.
OnStar FMV is on sale through June 16.
A new toilet land speed record has been set.
We called out the electric cars that are merely "compliance cars."
Obesity is costing America extra money at the pump.


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African countries like Senegal and Tanzania are also in the throes of a food crisis, and they are the only ones to have a thriving black-market grocery market.
Here’s how it works.
Africa has seen a dramatic increase in the popularity of shopping malls, but it’s not clear how the phenomenon is connected to the continent’s current food crisis.
African nations have a long history of trading and working with the United States, but this has been largely a private venture.
Now, some African nations are investing billions of dollars in the burgeoning food market, but the companies that are taking part in the initiative face a number of challenges.
A new breed of Africa-focused retailer, known as Afrexo, hopes to make the market even more appealing by offering better quality products and faster delivery.
Afrexos founder Benji Roussi has built a reputation for providing a friendly and friendly environment for customers.
He also has a reputation as an innovator in the African market.
Afreexo has partnered with local companies and international retailers, but has struggled to convince African countries to open up their borders to the firm’s services.
Many African countries in particular have strict rules on foreign ownership, and the country where AfrexO operates is known for a strict and strict approach to business.
Many of the companies Afrexol has partnered up with have closed.
But, according to Roussi, the food-related demand for Afrexom’s services is strong in Africa.
“Our customers love the fact that we provide services like cooking and cooking accessories,” he said.
The fact that there is a thriving food market there is not just a natural progression for us. “
Africa is a very complex continent.
The fact that there is a thriving food market there is not just a natural progression for us.
We’ve worked with countries that are experiencing food shortages for years, and we’ve built relationships that are very long-lasting.”
Afrexonos business model is a new model The company operates under the Afrexone brand.
Afexone sells its products directly to the customer, without a third party intermediary.
That means the food it sells is directly delivered to the person in need.
It has the same business model as the likes of Amazon and Walmart.
Afxone is aiming to scale up its operations, with an expansion to 200 stores.
It plans to add 100 new stores by the end of 2020, and expand its service to more African countries.
In the United Kingdom, Afrexons products have become a mainstay of the food market.
The company has more than 2,000 stores across the country, and it recently started selling its products through a service called the Afexon Shop.
Aflexons business model offers the same services as Amazon and Wal-Mart, but Afrexones prices are lower and the company does not have the same number of stores.
In a report by the consulting firm BDO last year, Afexos reported a 30 percent growth in revenue in 2016.
The Afexor brand has a much bigger presence in the U.K. It’s estimated that Afxons sales have grown by nearly 200 percent over the past two years.
Afoxos CEO Michael Smith said that the Afxor brand is not a competitor to Afrexono.
“We are the leader in the market, the market leader,” he told the Financial Times.
“I think we have the right to be in the top 20.”
Afxos is also trying to capitalize on the fact the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has started tracking food insecurity in African countries and Africa.
In 2016, the Unauthorized Development Program of the UNAIDS estimated that nearly 5 million people, or 30 percent of the population, were food insecure in six African countries, mostly in the Sahel region.
The report noted that the global food crisis was especially acute in the Horn of Africa, a region that is often used as a base for illicit trade.
According to the Unequal Access Network, an organization that tracks the development of African economies, Sahel countries account for nearly a quarter of the world’s food security problems.
In Africa, the report said, poor farming practices and poor infrastructure can result in a situation where crops are not grown as quickly as needed.
For example, some farmers in the Niger Delta farm less than six months a year, the organization said.
That could lead to a loss of productivity and reduce production in the years to come.
“Agriculture is a highly-integrated industry that is a multi-stakeholder sector,” Afrexona said.
It also hopes to connect with other African countries by establishing partnerships with them to provide logistics and supply chains for Afxo products.
The focus is not solely on food.
Afxto also is looking to expand its services to other African markets.
In addition to Africa, Afxono plans to expand into South America.
The Unaquired Development Program also notes that


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Shortages of onions worldwide have forced many countries to hold on to production for their domestic markets, and in Egypt, exporters must wait to sell in Europe
Last year, EU wholesale onion prices increased by more than 400 per cent as global shortages, the result of a variety of factors including floods in Pakistan, droughts in North Africa and the war in Ukraine, forced producing countries to prioritise domestic supplies.
Last August, farmers in the Indian state of Maharashtra protested against the central government’s decision to increase export duties on onions to 40 per cent to restrict overseas sales. Domestic prices fell, while in Europe the scarcity even threatened a knock-on increase in prices of other vegetables.
At this time of crisis, Egypt stood out for its stability in onion supplies, with production rising and exports flowing. According to official statistics authority Capmas, Egyptian onion exports rose by 95.9 per cent in the first half of 2023.
In October, however, even Egypt had introduced a three-month ban on onion exports, which has since been extended until 30 March.
“There is a shortage worldwide,” explained Gehan Mostafa, chairman and CEO of Egyptian exporter Sadat Global, “so every country is keeping their own production for themselves. This is the first time we have faced a shortage of onions in Egypt. It is the first time exports have been stopped to cover the market.”
According to Mostafa, exporters will have to wait until the government announces that exports can resume, as it did earlier this year for potatoes. “Potatoes are already there, and a lot of people are asking for them,” she told Fruitnet. “This year there should be good demand for potatoes in Europe.”
Fears of a potato shortage won’t be eased by last month’s report from EastFruit that potato prices in Ukraine are currently four times higher than they were last year and still rising.
The most recent price increase was due to a decline in supplies from local farms in Ukraine, according to EastFruit, with a lack of long-term storage facilities forcing Ukrainian potato farmers to sell out in the first half of the season.
In Central Asia, abundant onion stocks have reportedly resulted in low prices, as companies seek to shift volumes ahead of the new harvest.


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-KH News Desk
Not So Dark (NSD), a food tech startup, has secured $80 million in a Series B fundraising round, which it plans to use to broaden its virtual meal delivery franchise model throughout Europe.
Kharis Capital and Verlinvest took the lead in the fundraising, with Conviviality Ventures contributing as well. Tech Funding News stated on Monday that the business has now raised $105 million with the new funding (Sept. 26).
The food technology firm, which has its main office in Paris, France, and was created in 2020 by Clement Benoit and Alexandre Haggai, provides a franchised virtual delivery model for physical restaurants. Smaller restaurants can use the service to conduct a mobile delivery business out of their own kitchens using a background digital franchise.
“Pivoting and starting from zero was a massive undertaking. But we saw so clearly that the future of the online delivery industry was in forging partnerships with traditional restaurants — not competing with them,” said Benoit, per the news outlet.
Benoit added that the new capital will help bolster the company’s “market leadership in France” while also helping it expand its footprint “across Europe at a very fast pace.”
Not So Dark now employs 100 people and has a portfolio of 150 partners operating in over 100 cities. The platform’s integrated data analytics are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“We’ve studied the dark kitchens market and watched its rapid development. We believe NSD cracked the model that essentially allows all parties involved to profitably grow their business while offering customers alternative and convenient food offerings,” Kharis Capital Managing Partner Daniel Grossman said in the Tech Funding News report.
He added that in just a year’s time, Not So Dark is already established as a “major figure in the sector.”


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While listed retailers are expected to benefit from Budget’ 22 cash handouts and cost-of-living relief, the benefits could be short-lived with Australian retailers preparing for steady value rises from their suppliers for the rest of the calendar year, and beyond.
Much of the expected intense price hikes are being attributed to geopolitical tensions, including Ukraine and supply chains effects from recent lockdowns in China.
Add the lingering impacts of the pandemic, rising inflation and low unemployment – forcing upward pressure on wages - and it’s clear that retailers are going to need all the help they can get.
What’s increasingly evident is that after absorbing higher operating, freight and packaging costs over the past few years, retailers now have to pass on higher costs to consumers.
As a result, the $65,000 question is what impact that will have on spending, especially with more of the household budget going to cover mortgage costs.
Australian retail sales beat expectations in March, up 1.6 % (to $33.6bn a new record high), and triple what economists were expecting.
But in light of pressure on household budgets, courtesy of rising interest rates, the jury’s out on whether retail’s Indian summer will continue at the same click.
Meantime, retail sales are on a tear, up 9.4% on the last 12-months and much stronger compared to the pre-covid trend.
AMP Investments' senior economist Diana Mousina expects to see a pull-back in retail sales growth. Admittedly, the $240bn war-chest in cash hoarded by consumers since the pandemic may offset tougher day for retailers.
But Mousina expects higher than normal goods demand to be replaced with higher services spending on the back of higher interest rates, and as consumers resume (pre-covid) activities.
It’s doesn’t take an economist to conclude that within a post-covid world, a return to normal buying patterns will benefit sectors beyond food staples, with tourism and travel-related services likely to divert spending away from retail segments.
While March figures show discretionary segments continuing to outperform – with food staples up 0.5%, the standouts are cafes & restaurants up 2%, and non-food retail up 2.5% for the month on a combined basis.
Whether it’s the calm before the ‘interest rate’ storm remains to be seen, but big retail is continuing to grow. Department stores were up 4.1%, while household goods jumped 3.4%.
What could help to ease margin pressures experienced by big retailers with a heavy reliance on domestic revenue - that source goods in other currencies - is a rising Australian dollar, notably against the greenback (US$) now at US$0.72, and to a lesser extent Japanese and Chinese currencies.
UBS expects Wesfarmers (ASX: WES), Premier Investments (ASX: PMV), Temple and Webster (ASX: TPW), Adairs (ASX: ADH), apparel brand Universal Store (ASX: UNI),JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX: JBH), Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX: HVN), and Kogan.com (ASX: KGN) to be amongst early beneficiaries.
Source: Trading Economics
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I BELIEVE there are some changes to domicile which may have an impact on ex-UK residents in some way. Do you know what these changes are?TVW, Jersey
Simon Farrant, product research manager at Towry Law, says:The chancellor announced there would be a consultation paper on domicile.
Although the law may change in future it has not as yet. The last major change was actually in 1998 and affected Capital Gains Tax.
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Netgear Debuts WiFi Products
Netgear this week announced a pair of new WiFi-based accessory products, a home theater kit and a universal adapter. They will be unveiled at the CeBIT trade show this week.
The High-Performance Wireless-N HD Home Theater Kit (WNHDB3004) is capable of displaying flawless 1080p HD video and audio streams throughout the home. It will arrive in the third quarter of this year, at a price to be announced.
The Universal WiFi Internet Adapter for Home Theater Devices and Gaming Consoles (WNCE2001), which is USB-powered, delivers Wireless-N performance through Ethernet-enabled CE devices, including TVs and Blu-ray Disc players. It will arrive in May at an MSRP of $79.
Click here for more on the products.


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By Thomas Gryta and Shara Tibken
If you’re hoping to get your hands on Samsung’s latest phone, the much-hyped Galaxy S III, you may have to wait.
Demand for the device is so strong, the South Korean electronics giant says, that it’s causing some supply shortages. It’s working with carriers to fill pre-orders, but in-store purchases may be a little delayed. A Samsung spokeswoman says the company hopes to have the retail channel full next week so people can finally buy in stores.
But even if you can’t get the device–or if you have no interest in getting one–you are going to see it. Samsung is making its biggest ever U.S. mobile marketing push with traditional advertising and a number of interactive strategies like 3-D games at movie theaters.
The marketing push was apparent Wednesday at a flashy launch party at Skylight Studios in downtown Manhattan. To get inside, attendees had to walk through the foggy “Tunnel of Sharing Purgatory,” where Samsung stressed how easy it is to share photos and other files with the new phone. The event also included opportunities to chat with NBA legend Walt Frazier and shoot some hoops with basketball great Steve Nash.
Beyond the glitz and gimmickry of the event itself, Samsung is opening several fronts in getting the public exposed to the Galaxy name.
The company is placing brightly branded public kiosks–mostly in transportation hubs for now–where Galaxy S III owners can download free content by touching the phone to the stand.
Samsung is doing the same thing with posters, which use Samsung’s TecTiles, or paper-thin tags that can be programmed to prompt the phone to perform functions when it touches the tag. In this case, the tag sends the phone to a Web address that contains the downloadable content.
Samsung is also pushing the marketing into movie theaters by allowing people with the phone to play a 3-D game with each other to demonstrate various “sharing features” of the phone. Among those features is tap-and-go NFC technology that lets users share files with other Galaxy S III owners, and a way to let users work on the same document on separate devices. Users can also share pictures with other Galaxy III owners as they take them.
The Galaxy S III marks a new strategy for Samsung, one it hopes will boost its lead in the global smartphone market. It’s the first device from the company that’s identical across all the carriers, allowing it to market the brand more aggressively.
With all of this product-specific marketing, Samsung has shifted inward as opposed to helping wireless carriers build and differentiate their brands. It’s unclear if the carriers themselves will cut back on their usual commercialization of the latest hot device.
For its part, Verizon Wireless said it doesn’t comment on marketing plans. Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Spokeswoman Teri Daley couldn’t give specifics on Samsung’s spending for the campaign, but said it is double its previous efforts.


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At this point, Black Friday feels as American a tradition as Thanksgiving. Thursday brings turkey and Detroit Lions football, and Friday brings doorbusters.
But in recent years, at least in part because of the pandemic, Black Friday has expanded from a single day to an entire season of sales. And in case you haven’t noticed, it’s already started.
“It actually started in October,” said Louis Ramirez, associate editor at Tom’s Guide.
This year, Amazon added a second Prime Day in October to coincide with its annual sale in July. “The way they planned it was, ‘This is for all you people who want to shop early for the holidays,'” Ramirez said. “That opened the floodgates for other retailers to do the same.”
Don’t worry, it’s not too late to find great deals. Here’s what deal experts say the rules have changed for Black Friday shoppers, and how you can take advantage.
Different times for different deals
Getting the deal you want can mean hitting a moving target. “Some of the agreements that started in October have expired. Others have come back,” said Ramirez. “There will be new deals at the end of the year.”
So how do you know when to act? Depending on where you shop, the sooner you shop, the better.
Several stores, including Target, have holiday price guarantees, said Julie Ramhold, a consumer analyst at DealNews. “If you buy now and the price drops before December 24, you can get a price adjustment,” he said.
While he expects the new deals to launch on Friday, it may be wise to get yourself some discounts if they’re currently being advertised as part of Black Friday sales, Ramhold said. Best Buy’s current discount, for example, is unlikely to change on Friday, he says.
“If they sell, there’s no guarantee they’ll get back in stock,” Ramhold said. “You don’t want to sit on those labeled Black Friday deals for too long. If you have the skills, go ahead and jump on them.”
No need to wait in line: ‘All deals available online’
Some retailers will still call their doors open for Black Friday sales, but there’s no need to raid the area, experts say.
“There will always be people who finish Thanksgiving dinner and walk in line, but things have changed. All the deals are available online,” Ramirez said.
That has been the state of affairs for several years now, Ramhold said. “We only saw deals in stores when they came out before the pandemic, and then the pandemic destroyed that,” he said.
There may be a few “reasonable” exceptions, Ramhold said. “Warehouse clubs can have in-store deals on perishables that they won’t ship to you.”
If not, you may find similar deals online and in store.
Cyber Monday isn’t really a thing anymore
While Black Friday is home to big retailers, the online shopping holiday Cyber Monday has given smaller, online retailers a chance to get in on the action.
But these days, with the likes of Target and Walmart offering online deals all weekend, you’re unlikely to find anything special or unique on the Monday after Thanksgiving.
Some retailers will have a separate sign for Cyber Monday, while others may coin a phrase that covers the entire weekend.
“Some stores will have a different sale each day. Some will change the name. It depends on where you shop, but if you dig around, the deals can be very different,” said Ramhold.
In short, everyone and their mother will be selling things all weekend, and probably already have. To get the best deals, sales experts offer two main strategies:
- Use a price tracker: Whether you’re shopping early or right on Black Friday, giving yourself an idea of where an item usually goes can help you know when you’re getting the best discount. If a site like CamelCamelCamel shows you that the item you’re looking at is priced near the lower end of its range, you can rest assured that you’re getting a good discount.
- Narrow down your options: “Make a list of what you want to buy – what you give to others and what you want to buy for yourself,” says Ramirez. “That way you can stick to the list, and it makes it easier to track and compare prices.”
Do you want to earn more and work less? Register which is free CNBC Make It: Your Money Event on Dec. 13 at 12 pm ET to learn from financial experts like Kevin O’Leary how to maximize your earning potential.
Don’t miss: 75% of young, affluent Americans get it ‘wrong’ about investing, CFP says


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Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
The audience at Bryan Prince Bookseller, in the Westdale neighbourhood of Hamilton, Ont., has spilled into the next room. It’s a windy Thursday evening in November and although the residential area is mostly quietening down, the night is just getting started at the bookshop.
Several people crowd the doorway, peering in where one of the founders of McMaster University’s medical school, Dr. C. Barber Mueller, is presenting his new book, Excalibur. Just another full house celebrating books.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
“You don’t hear of many good, positive stories about the print side [of publishing] and bookstores, but things are going well for us,” said Tracey Higgins, co-owner of the shop, where the walls are floor to ceiling with books.
If this weeknight reading is any indication, the popularity of books isn’t in doubt.
[np_storybar title=”Online Strides” link=””]
Where the Internet was once seen as a threat to the publishing world, Matt Williams, vice-president of publishing operations for House of Anansi Press, said digital platforms are now the biggest opportunities for the industry. Here are examples of innovation already online:
Pop Sandbox Productions and Publishing (popsandbox.com)
The publisher of KENK: A Graphic Portrait (about prolific bicycle thief Igor Kenk), is proof publishing, multimedia and interactive elements do go together. Their project The Next Day is both a printed graphic novel and an online interactive documentary.
The 49th Shelf (49thshelf.com)
A Canadian book-marketing site to “help mitigate the loss of putting books in front of people,” Mr. Williams said. The self-proclaimed “interactive, virtual library” is a partnership between the Association of Canadian Publishers and the Canadian Publishers’ Council, sponsored in part by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage.
BookNet Canada (booknetcanada.ca)
This non-profit site, also partially funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, is a response to the change in technology used by the industry. The site gathers and shares industry data, offers retailers and publishers the tools to sell and promote books online and generally is home to a wealth of information for publishing in the digital era.
Instead, it’s the evolving ways books are promoted, sold and consumed that has those in the publishing industry scrambling to ensure growth and, for some, survival.
The opening of big-box retailers and an increasing use of online sites for reading and shopping in the past two decades has sent smaller businesses back to the drawing board.
Now, recent announcements of a game-changing merger between publishing giants Random House and Penguin, the filing for bankruptcy protection by B.C.’s Douglas & McIntyre and yet another closure of a beloved local shop (the 40-year-old Toronto Women’s Bookstore), have again raised fears of industry troubles.
This time, however, many smaller players are countering in a much more positive way.
“I can almost foresee a rebirth of Canadian publishing coming out of this,” said Cynthia Good, director of Humber College’s Creative Book Publishing program and former president of Penguin Books Canada.
“I find this to be a very creative time and full of artistic possibilities … There will be new kinds of partnerships, one can imagine publishers could partner with new kinds of media or a gaming company or a bookstore,” she said.
Partnerships have helped set Bryan Prince Bookseller apart in Hamilton. The shop hosts monthly readings for the Hamilton Poetry Centre and consequently stocks a substantial poetry section that turns over well, Ms. Higgins said. The shop also co-hosts community events with A Different Drummer Books, a Burlington, Ont. retailer, bringing in big-draw authors including Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje and Lloyd Robertson, sharing expenses and sales.
“We have cross-over in our customers, we have cross-over in the authors we want to bring in and there’s more than enough room for us both to survive. It’s mutually beneficial to work together and help each other thrive,” Ms. Higgins said.
A willingness to partner is just one of several strategies used by Ian Elliot, owner of A Different Drummer Books. Bringing in special orders from around the world and catering to the local education market, including orders for libraries and schools, is also a significant part of the business, he said.
Toronto-based Second Story Press, a small publishing house dedicated to “feminist-inspired” adult and young adult books, similarly targets the education market as a key part of its growth strategy. For more than 20 years, the publisher has been supplying books in dozens of languages, in more than 50 countries, including in the Brazilian and Indonesian school systems.
Despite sometimes worrisome industry trends, company co-founder Margie Wolfe said it has been a successful year for the publishing house, especially in its effort to diversify its customer base — book sales in the United States have actually gone up.
“I don’t believe one strategy fits all,” she said, “We’ve had nice spurts in growth in the U.S., we continue to do well internationally, books this year we’ve sold out in weeks and we’ve gone back to press. I’m optimistic for small publishing in Canada.”
Second Story Press has also embraced the advantages of online marketing. Recently, it hosted a one-hour webinar for 1,100 librarians across North America. “I didn’t even know what that was five years ago,” Ms. Wolfe said. In addition to sending a few hundred review copies to newspapers each year, bloggers are also approaching the company. And, where the publishing house used to organize events and publicity for authors, writers will now do a lot of their own promotion on social media and personal websites.
House of Anansi Press is one of the Canadian publishing industry’s biggest success stories, in large part because of the opportunities the online world gave the once small company. Matt Williams, vice-president of publishing operations for Anansi, said the growth in online sales has only strengthened the company.
“Amazon has been a huge account for us, chapters.ca has been huge,” he said. “These are sales opportunities that did not exist even three, four years ago. Now, 15% to 17% of our business is ebook sales. … We can publish a book around the world overnight, via digital. Publishers put writers together with readers [online]. That is a huge opportunity,” he said.
In 10 years, Anansi has grown to a staff of 28 and sales of about $6-million a year, from three employees and barely $500,000 in sales.
The recent merger announcement and frequent closure of bookstores do worry Mr. Williams, however, as he points to the inevitable loss of jobs.
“Publishers were positioned to be able to take advantage of the changing formats like digital. Bookstores have been a little left in the cold over the years, especially independents,” he said.
An announcement by the Canadian Booksellers Association in October that the organization would be absorbed by the Retail Council of Canada due to “economic pressures” is another sign of the diminishing strength of booksellers across the country.
The Toronto Women’s Bookstore in the city’s Annex neighbourhood is the latest industry casualty. Victoria Moreno bought the shop just two years ago, worked mostly seven days a week without taking a salary, invested in a café and patio space, started music and children’s programs, and hosted countless readings and artist workshops. In theory, the shop had gone from a not-for-profit to a for-profit model under her watch, but in reality, it was far from it.
“This has been charity work here, there’s been no profit,” Ms. Moreno said just weeks before the shop closed its doors for good on Nov. 30. She spent the shop’s last weeks selling the cafe equipment, packing and returning any remaining inventory and trying to find a new tenant for the Harbord Street location.
Selling textbooks was once the shop’s bread and butter, Ms. Moreno said, but students are now finding resources online. That, combined with the area’s slow foot traffic and a support network that isn’t as active, spelled the shop’s demise.
“When I announced it, people were up in arms saying ‘the community, the community.’… But the honest truth is people were not coming in,” she said.
“It’s horrible when any bookstore has to fold; it’s bad for readers, it’s bad for publishers,” Ms. Wolfe at Second Story Press said.
“But we have a really broad and diverse industry that’s operating within this country. And while the media keeps talking ‘doom and gloom,’ we publishers keep publishing.”


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For the last eight years, Christmas has come twice a year in Milton on a day locals refer to as the Best of Milton Festival.
What is it?
The Best of Milton Festival is a big auction and fundraiser event designed to sustain the Milton Historical Society. The event features some of the best gems in Milton and in all of Sussex County. Last year's Best of Milton Festival saw the Milton Fire Department donate a ride on its 1926 fire engine to a lucky couple who used it for their wedding.
Held at the Milton Fire Hall, this Saturday will mark the eighth year for the event.
Approximately 200 items will be available for auction. It'll include everything from antiques, books, gift baskets and gift certificates to big-ticked items like a private tour at Dogfish Head Brewery.
All of the items have been donated, and the majority of them will be available in the silent auction.
Not to mention, the festival will feature hors d'oeuvres and desserts including King's Homemade Ice Cream. Live tunes will be provided by the piano and sax duo Vincent Verrassi and Ken Cicerale.
"It's kind of like a fun atmosphere for people to enjoy themselves and mingle, and see what other business have contributed and sort of revel in that and take pride in what Milton has to offer," said Milton Historical Director Amber Schell.
In addition to the private tour at Dogfish Head, Schell believes some of the other highly coveted items will include a children's pedal car that's been donated from i.g. Burton. It's a proven gem that's been a hit in the past.
Another notable item is a stunning autographed photo of Cape Henlopen during a sunset by professional photographer Kevin Fleming. Fleming, who has a gallery in Rehoboth, has photographed for National Geographic.
Also, the town of Milton has donated a party package that includes private use of Milton Memorial Park and a ride on it its miniature choo-choo train.
Believe it or not, local resident Gladys Wilkins' has donated hen eggs that are all the rave. Every year Wilkins has faithfully donated a dozen of eggs for the Best of Milton Festival, and they sell like chocolate chip hotcakes.
"They usually sell for over $100," Schell said. "That's an expensive omelet."
IF YOU GO
WHAT 8th Annual Best of Milton Festival
WHEN 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday
WHERE Milton Fire Department's fire hall, 116 Front St., Milton
Page 2 of 2 - COST $15
INFO Visit historicmilton.org or call (302) 684-1010


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This year’s PATA Travel Mart, one of the longest-running travel trade shows in the Asia-Pacific region, gets underway this month, in an online format for the second consecutive year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The winners of this year’s PATA Gold Awards will also be announced in a live virtual ceremony after the travel mart.
From 2 to 5 September, Virtual PATA Travel Mart 2021 will be held in a 100% digital format, making it easy for delegates to stay up-to-date with the latest travel products, maintain connections, and build relations with new business partners.
Virtual PATA Travel Mart 2021 is staged by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) to create an annual opportunity to learn about industry trends and access important information, gaining insights and advice from trusted travel agents and informed tourism professionals.
It is being organised in conjunction with the Sichuan International Travel Expo (SITE) with the support of Official Event Partner, the Leshan Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau, and is driven by the Official Virtual Event Partner, Dragon Trail Interactive.
The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) is participating in PATA Travel Mart with a virtual booth, hosting a total of 10 representatives from the Macao travel trade to help promote the city, as well as for business-to-business meetings and networking sessions.
MGTO Director, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, also features among the speakers of PATA Travel Mart Forum, in a session themed “Destination Recovery Insight from Pacific & Northeast Asia”, to share Macao’s experience on how the city is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and is preparing towards recovery.
The event will include streamed content from Leshan, Sichuan province, the featured destination, and include the live streaming of the opening ceremony of the Sichuan International Travel Expo.
It includes opportunities to hear insights about the industry through high-quality forums. Special interactive networking breaks are scheduled with a number of organisations. The business days of the event, to be held on 2 and 3 September, also promise as many as 50 one-on-one meeting appointments.
The event’s full programme is available online at www.pata.org.
PATA Gold Awards virtual ceremony on 8 September
MGTO is actively involved in PATA’s mission. This year, the Office has continued its sponsorship for the 26th consecutive year of the PATA Gold Awards, the annual awards for the finest achievements in the Asia-Pacific travel trade. The list of winners of this year’s awards will be announced live by PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera and MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes in a ceremony conducted online.
This year, PATA will present two “Grand Title Winners” for “best of show” entries and 18 Gold Awards in two broad categories – “Marketing”, and “Sustainability and Social Responsibility”.
The virtual ceremony for the PATA Gold Awards takes place on 8 September, and will be broadcast to a global audience on the PATA YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/c/PATATV.


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Coty Inc. has been named the Most Innovative Company of 2011 by the Consumer Goods Technology (CGT) Group. The CGT Group awarded Coty with this achievement following a review of hundreds of entries.
Three of Coty's products were recognized as being the most innovative: Rimmel Lash Accelerator, for its Lash Growth Technology; Sally Hanson Salon Manicure, for the first encapsulation in nail lacquer; and Sally Hanson Special Effects, for its patented film technology.
The recognition is determined by the CGT Group's board of directors, including executives from Alberto Culver, P&G, Unilever, Nestle, Accenture, Miller-Coors, Gartner Group, DelMonte Foods and Rubbermaid.
"These products and their subsequent recognition are the result of great team work as we drive our innovation process to new levels," said Ralph Macchio, senior vice president of global research and development and chief scientific officer, in a PR Newswire press release. "The science behind Coty's product portfolio uniquely reflects the team's successful response to the evolving demands of consumer habits and retail trends. We are all very excited to be recognized for our strong innovation performance in a highly competitive marketplace."
The award was recently presented to Coty and the company will be featured in the December publication of Consumer Goods Technology Magazine.


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BOB has posted interim financial statements for the quarter ended September 30, 2020. The statements can be viewed at the Shareholder Centre.
Following a $7.3MM loss for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, Bank of The Bahamas Limited (the Bank) rebounded with a $2.37MM profit for the first quarter ended September 30, 2020 according to the Bank’s Executives.
Don't fall victim to mystery shopping scams! Never give out your personal or financial information and never wire money to persons you don't know!
BOB will never send you emails with click thru iinks asking you to check your account or update personal information. If you receive a suspicious email notify us by forwarding it to email@example.com. If you suspect you have been scammed ...
Please note our current reduced hours for Nassau/Eleuthera and Freeport/Family Islands
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STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: Home furniture store, Mio, brought its catalogue to life with a handy 3D mobile app.
Mama Mio… the three-dimension inspiration campaign
click to enlarge
There is no question that Mio is second to IKEA when it comes to Sweden’s furniture and home accessory stores. However, its smaller budget and dealer organisational structure make it difficult for the brand to try something “out of the box” on a large scale. In addition, while consumers and the marketing channels have changed, Mio couldn’t abandon the classic television and daily morning newspapers that they had relied on as communication vehicles for years.
Instead, it needed to find a new way to get people talking about Mio again. Of the US$193.4m Mio generates in sales, 86% comes from customers who receive the Mio catalogue, which remains the most important tool they have.
Furniture consumers have usually made up their minds about what they want to buy even before stepping foot in a store and because buying furniture for the home is an extremely personal purchase, people discuss design and style with friends and family long before they spend a penny. Consumers actively communicate through digital channels such as social networks, e-mail and mobile phone applications, so Mio committed to a micro-budget in order to utilise these channels.
The strategy had to be specific and on the mark because there was no room financially for a massive push. They decided to give current and potential consumers, as well as interior design enthusiasts, more inspiration and opportunities to find the right furniture and accessories for their homes. Putting a tangible visual in front of consumers made it far more likely that they would visit the store, and from there the product was as good as sold.
The idea was to bring the catalogue to life with a mobile app that showed people what Mio furniture looked like in their homes from the comfort of their sofas. Not only did the app put the entire Mio catalogue on people’s iPhones, but it featured a 3D augmented reality function that let people test-furnish their properties to see exactly how chosen pieces of furniture would look in various different rooms.
This move was a refreshing approach to a familiar technique and increased engagement, improved the personal experience and expanded the potential for loyalty within the marketplace.
More than 60 000 people used the online banner catalogue and 3000 extra print catalogues were ordered online.
The App earned a place in the top 10 of the Best iPhone Apps in the Lifestyle category shortly after being launched


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Recently Google released a new version of Chrome (the 69th) which has a feature – not much appreciated by users – that obliges them to log in to the browser with their Google account when they log in to one of Google’s services, such as Gmail.
Before, logging into the browser was optional, necessary only if the user wanted to synchronize data between multiple devices, but now it is automatic: in other words using Chrome to enter Google services websites required a login, now this will be done automatically on the browser, without an explicit request for consent and without any notification.
In addition to blocking the classic advertisements giving users the opportunity to opt for non-invasive and native ads for the browser itself, Brave has among its objectives to make their web browsing untraceable.
The company that made it claims that its use improves online privacy by sharing little data with advertisers and uses an anonymous browsing history that allows you to provide them with anonymous data only.
It also provides content publishers and creators with a share of the profits through the ERC20 BAT (Basic Attention Token) token.
Brave has quickly gained users since it was launched last year, the Android app, for example, has had already more than 10 million downloads.
In addition, according to the company, the browser is already being used by 4 million users per month on various devices, compared to 3 million reported in July. This powerful growth is also due to Chrome’s new invasive policies from the point of view of privacy.
The company that created and launched this new browser has also recently filed two formal complaints against Google, claiming that it violates the general regulation on data protection (the notorious GDPR).


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Popular sports video game Rocket League will be free to play starting this summer
The hit sports game Rocket League will soon be free to play.
Developers Psyonix Games confirmed Tuesday its game, which combines soccer with high-speed vehicles, will be available to play for no charge starting this summer.
Psyonix says the shift will happen as Rocket League makes its debut on the Epic Games Store.
Anyone who played Rocket League prior to the free-to-play move will earn a Legacy status granting access to previous downloads and common in-game items.
Launched in 2015 for PC and PlayStation 4, the popular sports game has snagged multiple awards and launched on several other platforms including Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
In May 2019, Psyonix announced it was acquired by Epic Games, owners of the hit action game Fortnite.
'Holiday shopping will be different':Walmart says it will keep stores closed this Thanksgiving
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.


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EU: To discuss ways of boosting the fashion industry
By Petah Marian | 13 February 2013
European Commission vice president Antonio Tajani is set to meet with European fashion companies to discuss measures to reinforce the growth and competitiveness of the European fashion industry.
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* Silvercorp CEO buys a further 135,000 shares in miner
* Co shares up 1 pct in pre-market trade in the U.S. (Adds background, details on share repurchase; share price move)
By Euan Rocha
TORONTO, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Rui Feng, the chief executive of embattled miner Silvercorp (SVM.TO), has boosted his stake in the company further, according to regulatory filings that indicate his vote of confidence in his own firm.
Feng, who early this month bought 100,000 Silvercorp shares in the open market, has bought a further 135,000 shares, taking his stake in the China-focused miner up to 3.99 million shares, the filings show.
Silvercorp, which operates silver mines in China, is the latest in a string of companies to come under short-seller attack. Complaints center around murky finances, or items in corporate filings that the short-sellers say cannot be substantiated. [ID:nS1E78D0YV]
Silvercorp has dismissed the anonymous allegations of fraud and accused short-sellers of attempting to run a “short and distort” scheme designed to drive down its share price.
The company has also been buying back shares under a program that its board approved in June, arguing that they are undervalued after the company lost $1.5 billion in market value in the last five months. It has bought 4 million of its outstanding shares since June 17. [ID:nS1E78E0BZ]
Silvercorp last week issued a raft of figures on its tax payments, assay results and other details that it says disprove the short-seller allegations against it.
Since the allegations surfaced in early September, Feng has spent roughly C$1.7 million on Silvercorp shares.
Shares of Silvercorp, which touched an 19-month low of C$5.81 last week, have since pared some losses and were at C$6.90 early on Monday, up from Friday’s close of C$6.81. (Reporting by Euan Rocha; editing by Janet Guttsman)


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Spotlight on Healthy Pets Insurance for Upcoming Awards.
Ardonaghs Spotlight Award 2018 have named Healthy Pets Insurance as ones to watch with a huge total of 5 nominations across the 11 categories and one lucky employee being honoured with a finalist position in the Rising Star category with winners to be announced early next year.
Shanine Collins, Head of Operations and New Business, stated that "Healthy Pets are very excited to have been nominated in the Spotlight Awards again and to have reached the finalist stage once more.
"This last year has been full of growth, innovation and team spirit so we are very honoured to have been recognised for this and we wish our Rising Star Izzie Hooper-Massey all the best for the awards ceremony in March."
Healthy Pets Insurance is quite possibly the original online pet insurer, launched in 1996, and which sold its first policies online in 1997, a year before Google was founded. It now has tens of thousands of customers, and policy purchases increasing fast. Healthy Pets Insurance, now part of the Ardonagh Insurance group of Companies, is a specialist pet insurance company. It consistently offers the most competitive prices, and has amongst the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the sector.


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Vali Chandrasekaran has made a name for himself as a writer on popular comedy television shows like 30 Rock and Modern Family. He’s wanted to write a comic for much of his life partly because of the intense freedom comic book creators have compared to other mediums.
“You just put your comic out into the world. It’s just what you want to make,” Chandrasekaran said. “You don’t need to convince other people… to raise the money to shoot a $500,000 or million dollar independent movie. I like how when you go to a comic store how weird it is.”
With France-based artist Jun-Pierre Shiozawa, Chandrasekaran decided to self-publish a comic called Genius Animals?, a comedy about a woman who gets wrapped up in a massive, genius-animals-related conspiracy after her boyfriend mysteriously disappears.


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AppleInsider may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made through links on our site.
As many as 6 out of every 10 employees at one Wall Street firm have gone back to carrying a corporate BlackBerry alongside their personal iPhone thanks to "Bring Your Own Device" trouble, underscoring Apple's teething problems in the enterprise and highlighting the importance of the company's new tie-up with C-suite favorite IBM.
Many of the issues stem from the relative inadequacy of the third-party mobile device management — or MDM — solutions available for iOS when compared to battle-tested alternatives like BlackBerry's BES, one IT executive at the firm told CIO.com. Some cause excessive battery drain, while others don't play nicely with popular apps like those from Salesforce, making life difficult for users.
"The failure of these systems has to do with little things that drive users crazy," the executive said. "We're an investment firm with a hundred-something monkeys, everyone is super smart, everyone is a prima donna, and it's very difficult to accommodate them."
"We were shocked, blown away, by the privacy reaction," the executive said.
Privacy is also a factor, with users loathe to subject their personal data to corporate management thanks to the wide-ranging power enterprise administrators have once a handset has been placed in their control. An administrator can remotely track any device under their management, for instance, and lock down features like text messaging — abilities that the same executive said made users view corporate IT with suspicion as an Orwellian Big Brother.
Some third-party MDM vendors have attempted to bridge the privacy chasm with mixed results. An offering from Divide — recently acquired by Google — creates a separate "workspace" on a device to act as a silo for corporate data, for example, though such solutions remain outside of the mainstream.
That these concerns are surfacing now is somewhat ironic, given that privacy issues and device lockdown are among the very reasons that corporate users fled BlackBerry for iOS in the first place. Enterprise administrators simply lacked the tools to enforce those same standards on the iPhone when CEOs first came calling for the popular handset.
Apple is partially to blame for these faults, the executive said, because iOS was initially designed as a consumer operating system with apparently little thought given to its eventual role in the enterprise and the symbiosis that must exist between users and administrators to keep the peace.
This is an area where Apple's recently-unveiled enterprise pact with IBM could pay steep dividends. Though the relationship is widely viewed as a sales-first affair, Big Blue has unparalleled enterprise expertise and thousands of employees that live and breathe large-scale mobile device deployments — a deep pool of knowledge for Apple to tap as it refines its enterprise offerings.
The two companies hinted at just such an arrangement when announcing the partnership, touting IBM-developed "device management native to iOS" and a new "end-to-end procurement and lifecycle management services allow employees to manage their own mobile devices" dubbed IBM MobileFirst Supply & Management.
If executed properly, the pairing of Apple and IBM could easily beat back BlackBerry's mini-resurgence — and might eventually be enough to stamp out the Canadian firm for good.


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Spanish independent consumer watchdog FACUA ‘Consumidores en Acción’ (‘consumers in action’) has advised Podemos deputy Alberto Garzon to implement a ban on credit card wagering across all gambling verticals.
Garzon is set to serve as Spain’s Minister of Consumer Affairs within the newly established PSOE-Podemos left-wing coalition government.
Seeking closer scrutiny of Spain’s regulated gambling marketplace, PSOE-Podemos has transferred full regulatory oversight from the Finance Ministry to Garzon’s Consumer Affairs department.
Issuing a statement, FACUA backs the coalition’s federal commitment to implementing Spain’s new Royal Decree on advertising, establishing a new federal code to regulate gambling marketing alongside further opening restrictions on retail gambling enterprises.
However, FACUA recommends that the coalition follow its ‘positive steps’ by implementing a federal ban on credit wagering, further protecting Spain’s ‘vulnerable consumers from falling into debt’.
FACUA advises Garzon’s department to follow the precedent set by the UKGC, replicating a ban on all credit card transactions across all gambling verticals except non-remote lotteries.
“The association asks the government to follow the example of the United Kingdom, which has just approved this measure of protection for the most vulnerable people, that aims to minimise risks to consumers by preventing them from accumulating debts due to gambling, making it the only country in our region that restricts the use of credit cards in this industry,” it said.
Gambling reform was underlined as a ‘concrete directive’ of PSOE and Podemos ‘coalition pact’, which detailed to media that a new Spanish government would introduce comprehensive monitoring of the gambling industry within a new regulatory framework.
UK gambling legislation will be assessed by Spain’s new government, which has instructed the Consumer Affairs Department to consider introducing a ‘management fee or duty’ on Spanish online gambling incumbents to fund the nation’s addiction support networks.
Despite inbound regulatory changes, Spanish online gambling incumbents have committed to work under the terms of the new ‘code of conduct’ established by trade body Jdigital, which introduces a number of new measures lowering the ‘industry’s advertising volume’.
Spain’s online gambling sector states that it will implement its ‘auto control’ measures regardless of the coalition’s judgement.


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GM shutting down Chevy Volt production for five weeks
What's perhaps even more interesting is that this production hiatus comes after a lengthy "holiday" retooling break that only ended in early February. The upcoming shutdown is scheduled to last from March 19 to April 23. As a GM spokesman told MLive, "We're matching our production levels with demand and building to market."
Chevy Volt Information
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According to a recent survey by UK holiday park and holiday home sales operator, Away Resorts, the South of England is the most desirable place to purchase a holiday home, with almost half, 46%, planning to buy here this year.
The recent survey also asked Brits, who had the cash to buy a UK holiday home, what type of property they plan on purchasing.
Alternative homes took the top spot, with the majority, at 37%, looking to buy a caravan or lodge. 36% are looking for a house and 27% wanted a flat, showing more are looking into non-brick-and-mortar options.
Claire Hall, Creator of Tinboxtraveller, said: “It’s no surprise to me that mobile homes are such a popular type of holiday home. Modern caravans can be truly luxurious yet cost a fraction of buying bricks and mortar in a scenic location like the South Coast.
The extra benefit for families is having holiday park facilities on the doorstep of their home from home. My kids would spend their whole break in the park play areas and swimming pool if they had their way.”
59% Dream of a Coastal Home
55% went onto say location is key and the majority (59%) opted for a coastal holiday home.
Kate Watts, Holiday Home Sales Marketing Manager at Away Resorts, said: “Away Resorts have holiday homes available in multiple costal destinations from Whitecliff Bay on the Isle of Wight to Barmouth Bay in Wales. With more looking to buy holiday homes by the sea, we have seen an increase in purchases and enquires at our southern holiday park locations. All three offer Brits the beach nearby and is a paradise on their doorstep”.
Owning your own home offers experiences that you can’t get from just taking short trips. People are able to explore a new area of the country in detail and come home to a secure site every night.


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By Leman Mammadova
Milk processing is one of the potential spheres, since milk and other dairy products may constitute a significant share in Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector. All dairy products are considered vital for food security of the country.
Moreover, export oppotunities are high and soon Azerbaijan may launch sales of its dairy products to Saudi Arabia.
This was said by Samir Eyyubov, chairman of the Azerbaijan’s Association of Producers and Exporters of Milk and Dairy Products (ASEB), Trend reported.
He mentioned that two Azerbaijani companies export dairy products: “Atena” company to Middle East, and MPro to Russia.
Eyyubov noted that the main issue is provision of the domestic market with milk and dairy products, as well as implementation of new standards for this product. He added that steps are being taken to stimulate the development of dairy cattle breeding in the country.
ASEB, established on January 26, 2018 with an aim to support the development of entrepreneurship in the production of milk and dairy products, to increase export and production volumes, as well as introduce new technologies to this sphere. Any legal entity or individual engaged in the field of milk and dairy production can become a member of the association by providing relevant documents.
Azerbaijan’s Association of Producers and Exporters of Milk and Dairy Products (ASEB) plans to introduce new standards for these products in the country. Azerbaijan needs to promote such a concept as “farm milk”. That is milk and dairy products manufactured in compliance with the necessary standards. Special logos should be on packages of finished products to this end.
Earlier, Azerbaijan’s Food Safety Agency said that there are several standards in Azerbaijan related to the dairy products. There is a standard AZS 236-2006 “Sour milk products. Packaging, marking, transportation, storage”. In accordance with this standard, sour milk products, especially perishable goods, must be stored at the temperature 0 – 8ºC.
Milk production in the country in 2017 amounted to 2.0241 million tons. Azerbaijan has about 10 large dairy processing enterprises with annual production capacity of over 5,000 tons. Almost all types of dairy products – pasteurized milk, butter, cream, cottage cheese, cheese, sesame and milk powder are produced there.
As many as 85 percent of domestic demand for these products is provided by local producers, while about 15 percent is met by imported goods.
For 2019, milk production is projected at 2.219 million tons, in 2020 – 2.39 million tons, in 2021 – 2.49 million tons. Thus, by 2022, an increase of 18.6 percent might be observed compared to 2017.
Azerbaijan currently cooperates with U.S. in milk processing. Thus, a newly renovated milk collection and processing facility opened in Guneshli village in Saatli. The facility will produce the first ever yellow cheese in Azerbaijan.


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Not every scammy app was designed that way by the developers. Hackers can target popular apps and inject them with malicious code. And it’s incredibly spooky when this happens to one with a ton of downloads.
When good apps break bad
The app iRecorder – Screen Recorder has more than 50,000 installs … now passes along a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) to users, Cybersecurity firm ESET says.
The original version of the app uploaded to the Google Play Store in 2021 was fine. But an August 2022 update added malware. Google has kicked it out, but make sure you delete it from your phone if it’s installed.
Recording more than just your screen
The malware-infected app can record audio, steal files from your phone and send them back to hackers’ servers. Yeesh. Imagine your photos, videos and docs being secretly passed along to criminals.
At least there’s this
If your phone runs Android 11 or up (it should … We’re currently on Android 13), there’s a feature working in the background called App hibernation. Any apps you haven’t opened in months essentially go dormant and all permissions are reset. OK, Google, I appreciate that one.


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The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was one of the largest studies ever to examine the impact of eating habits on a variety of diseases, according to the Daily Mail.
Researchers examined 16,000 participants with type 2 diabetes and compared their healthy and eating habits with 12,400 others who did not have the disease.
A comparison of dairy consumption found that cheese did appear to protect against metabolic disease. Other dairy foods, with the possible exception of yogurt, did not appear to directly protect against the condition.
Researchers suggested that one reason for cheese’s impact on diabetes is that "not all saturated fatty acids have an equal effect on cardiovascular risk," which is similar to findings of other recent studies. These studies suggest certain acids produced only in cows’ stomachs may help protect heart disease
They also noted that that fermentation of cheese and yogurt could possibly trigger a reaction that protects against diabetes and heart problems.
In a report summarizing the study findings, researchers concluded that while their study did find the connection between cheese and a lowered diabetes risk, more studies should be conducted to further understand the role of cheese in chronic diseases.
This is not the first time a dairy product has been connected to a reduced risk of diabetes. In November, a study published in The Journal of Nutrition found a diet high in low-fat dairy products is associated with lower diabetes risk in postmenopausal women, particularly those who are obese. A 12-year study released in 2005 reported that men who drank two to three cups of low-fat or nonfat milk each day were 20% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.


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MEXICO CITY, March 28 (Reuters) - A Mexican tribunal ruled in favor of Grupo Mexico in its fight to merge its two railroad units, throwing out a complaint by competition authorities, the company and the antitrust regulator said on Monday.
Grupo Mexico (GMEXICOB.MX), which owns copper mines in Mexico, Peru and the United States, also operates Ferromex, Mexico’s largest railroad company. In 2005, Grupo Mexico bought another rail line, Ferrosur, through a subsidiary.
Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission, or CFC, objected, claiming the purchase would give Grupo Mexico outsized control over the railroad market, but the company disputed the ruling.
A tribunal in Mexico City has sided with Grupo Mexico, although both the company and the CFC say they have not yet been officially notified of the details of the decision.
The ruling signifies “the acquisition of Ferrosur should be understood as definitively approved,” according to a statement from the company to the Mexican stock exchange.
A CFC source said the decision was definitive and would be respected, allowing the merger to stand, but regulators are not ruling out the possibility of future action on the case.
Grupo Mexico has floated the idea of launching an IPO for its transportation division after the antitrust dispute is completely settled.
Grupo Mexico’s shares closed down 1.03 percent on Monday to 44.11 pesos per share. (Reporting by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)


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Media: A study of journalists shows that 60 percent of them now contribute to a blog or website, with a third of them just getting started in the last year. I’m assuming this means something beyond just having a column repurposed online.
More talk about putting mainstream news content behind a pay wall, including news that the Associated Press is in discussions for just such an arrangement.
User-generated content continues to grow, with social networks being the largest creation platform for said creation.
Advertising: YouTube is selling more video ads to deeper-pocketed advertisers according to a new study. There’s also a significant amount of the most popular videos that came from marketers themselves.
Whatever it winds up looking like, there’s little doubt that the television advertising model is changing as media options proliferate and younger viewers enter the marketplace who have never known a world without on-demand, commercial-skipping viewing.
Creative agencies will this year be invited to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s discussion on banner ads, a discussion that will try to bring together the needs of publishers and advertisers, two sides who sometimes have different views of a banner ad’s place in the world.
Ad networks are great for publishers who aren’t able to sell their own ads, but they’re also pushing rates down, which isn’t so great.
Mobile ads have high recall rates, especially among iPhone users. The format is expected to continue growing this year despite the recession, based largely on that recall number, something that’s falling for other platforms.
Social media: Despite all the talk that social media marketing expertise will eventually be part of everyone’s toolkit, Jim Tobin thinks there will always be a need for a someone or team of someone’s who are specialized in that field and are able to guide the way.
Retailing: A new study by Forrester Research draws a very clear line between effective customer service capabilities and customer loyalty, including the tendency of people to become enthusiasts and evangelists of a particular brand.


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Shoppers, some wearing protective masks, wait in line May 14, 2020, outside a Home Depot store in Londonderry, N.H.
(The Center Square) – Even with high unemployment brought on by the COVID-19 economic decline, New Hampshire registered a record low in bankruptcy filings last month.
A total of 81 bankruptcies were filed in June, the third consecutive month with only double-digit figures. It’s the lowest amount since 1988, and a 42 percent decrease from the same month last year.
“The numbers are stunning,” Malcolm P. Blackwood, a Manchester bankruptcy attorney, told the New Hampshire Business Review.
Blackwood said programs designed to stem the impact of the coronavirus financial downturn – like the $600 additional weekly unemployment benefit – mean more people have cash on hand. Mandated closures and shelter-in-place orders also have meant there is less opportunity to spend the money.
Businesses also have been helped by the Paycheck Protection Program.
Moratoriums on foreclosures and evictions similarly have prevented a detrimental wave of filings in the housing sector.
“We throw all this money out there, and we are not just flattening the curve of the virus, we are definitely flattening the curve of economic calamity. We are running on free money,” Blackwood said.
With such programs eventually set to expire, the outlook could change in another six months or so.
And several big-name national retailers, already struggling before the downturn, have had to file for bankruptcy protection as the pandemic drove down sales, including Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney, and J. Crew.
The rental car company, Hertz, the restaurant chain, Chuck E Cheese, and a number of major oil and gas producers also have filed for bankruptcy protection.
In New Hampshire last month, there were two bankruptcy cases that involved business-related debt, down from three in May. One was an individual filing.
The other was by the Bedford-based company, Strikes and Gutters Ups and Downs LLC, dba CPR Cell Phone Repair. That June 15 filing, under Chapter 7, reported assets of $13,615 and liabilities of $208,811.


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Apple publishes new iAd specs, including for native advertising
Apple is also said to be beginning an ad campaign for its Apple News app which has disappointed publishers with low readership and failure to provide useful user information
The Apple developer site has published a new spec sheet for Apple iAds (PDF here) and for the first time there is a spec for native advertising.
Native ads can link directly to an article published in the Apple News app, but if the advertiser wants to omit their name in the ad copy the word “Sponsored” would appear.
There are also reports, including this one from Digiday that Apple has begun an ad campaign to try and boost usage of Apple News. The app has proven a disappointment for publishers due to low readership levels, as well as Apple’s usual lack of support for its publishing partners. The Apple Publisher page remains showing the program in beta and the Apple News Format “coming soon” – the same state it was in since launch.
“Still, those changes only address part of the problem publishers are having. Having comScore measurement will help publishers sell ads on the platform, but Apple News requires ads to be custom-built, and unless the publisher is reaching a big audience there, the extra friction of creating a special ad for Apple News isn’t worth the effort,” wrote Lucia Moses of Digiday. “If the publisher doesn’t sell the ad, Apple can, but Apple’s fill rate, as one publishing exec described it, is ‘terrible’.”


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A big national retailer is squeezing into the sort of tiny space in Grand Central Terminal that is typically the domain of small local shops and designers. Women's clothier Talbots Inc. has opened a 32-square-foot holiday kiosk in the station's Graybar Passage, which runs from Lexington Avenue to the main concourse.
The Hingham, Mass.-based company opened the kiosk this weekend, selling accessories such as cashmere pashmina scarves, gloves, jewelry and handbags. The tiny outpost will be open Monday through Saturday through Dec. 31.
This is the first time such space in the terminal has been rented to an established national brand. Normally, both the kiosks and the holiday booths that fill Vanderbilt Hall on the station's south side are reserved for up and coming designers eager to get their feet wet in the world of retail. According to Laura Blaustein, assistant general manager of Jones Lang LaSalle, which manages the retail space for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Talbots approached the MTA about leasing a kiosk. Tenants pay a monthly rental fee, though Ms. Blaustein would not disclose how much Talbots is paying.
“There is no set rate for the kiosk rentals, it depends on the merchandise and the vendor,” she said.
At the terminal's holiday marketplace, 2008 booth-rental costs were estimated to be around $12,750 for the period roughly between Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, booths can be twice as large as the kiosks.
The Talbots kiosk includes a high-definition television monitor that shows in-house videos. Talbots personnel plan to pass out catalogs with current fall and winter clothing styles.
The tagline for the kiosk will be “Talbots—Who knew?,” according to a Talbots' memo about the kiosk's purpose in educating consumers about the brand. The memo went on to say: “This is the sentiment we want to impress upon the passive shopper as they walk by. Who knew Talbots was this cool… had these gorgeous ads… had such a beautiful product…was actually for me?”
Incidentally, department store J.C. Penney Co., which is known for its lower-cost merchandise and has been trying to appeal to younger customers of late, has been using a similar "Who knew" marketing campaign in its back-to-school ads this year.
Talbots has spent the last two years trying to update its image and appeal to younger shoppers. In 2008, it hired Michael Smaldone, a former Ann Taylor designer, as chief creative officer. He immediately went to work to modernize the brand by adding improved fabrics, better-fitting pants, and more daring necklines than had previously been associated with Talbots' New England-style apparel. Such efforts seem to be paying off with investors. The company's share price has risen 45% in the last 12 months and closed Friday at $12.93.


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The joy of gathering around a simmering hot pot for meals is a long-practised tradition since the ancient Chinese dynasties, and it is still a popular dining method.
IN Keeping with the Year of the Wood Goat, a majority of Chinese New Year menus this year will feature mutton or lamb. But Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur’s Chinese restaurant Xin Cuisine is staying true to traditional tastes and flavours.
EAT to your heart’s content and still stay healthy with the new Chinese New Year promotion menu at the Grand BlueWave Hotel in Shah Alam.


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Fast-casual chicken chain Super Chix will be joining Avenue East Cobb in 2024.
The menu includes hand-breaded chicken sandwiches and tenders, hand-cut fries, specialty salads and premium frozen custard with rotating daily flavors. The new Avenue East Cobb location will also feature a few exclusive items.
Experienced franchisee Missy Moon will operate the new location. It is expected to open in summer 2024.
Super Chix will join the recently opened Peach State Pizza, Press Waffle Co., and Tin Pin Game Bar as the latest food-and-beverage additions to debut at Avenue East Cobb, curated by North American Properties (NAP).
Super Chix is based in Texas.


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A Lombard music store was allegedly swindled out of $16,350 in guitars, amplifiers and equipment over the last two weeks, according to Lombard police. Steven J. Harnack of Park Avenue Music, 3 S. Park Ave., reported to police that a woman identifying herself as Zohny Badre of Capital Recording in New York City charged the merchandise with an American Express card number on Aug. 8 and 16 and gave instructions to deliver the shipments to a man in Chicago.
After Harnack delivered the merchandise to the man, a Guitar Center store in Chicago informed him that the man tried to sell them the merchandise, which appeared to them to be stolen, police said. On Aug. 17, the credit card company told Harnack that the purchases could not be honored as the card owner, a man named Badre Zohny, had not authorized them. The sales had been approved by American Express on both days, Harnack told police.


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US president Joe Biden’s executive order on cryptocurrencies this month included a reminder of the market’s staggering recent growth. The market cap of all digital assets reached $3tn in November last year, a 21,000% increase since 2016. But that growth has been far from smooth. Not only has the price of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin careened like a rollercoaster, but the market has also been subjected to a barrage of cybersecurity breaches. The biggest crypto hacks of all time, listed below, reveal an industry slowly and painfully learning why the privilege of handling millions of dollars worth of digital assets comes with a responsibility for faultless security.
Proponents argue that the crypto ecosystem is having to learn in a few years, lessons the conventional finance sector has had centuries to perfect. But the biggest crypto hack by value is also one of the most recent, suggesting there be many more lessons left to learn.
“Traditional financial companies have grown up knowing that you have to have layers of protection… in order for folks to entrust you with their money,” says Chris Caruana, VP of AML solutions at financial crime solutions platform Feedzai.
The biggest crypto hacks of all time
1. Poly Network, 2021 – $611m
The biggest crypto theft of all time, calculated using the value of the crypto assets at the time they were stolen, is last year’s $611m theft from Poly Network, a smart contract platform that allows users to exchange tokens between disparate blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
On August 10th 2021, a hacker transferred $611m-worth of Poly Network tokens to three wallets under their control. According to analysis by security researcher Mudit Gupta, the attacker had found a way to ‘unlock’ (ie buy) tokens on the Poly Network protocol without ‘locking’ (ie selling) the corresponding tokens on other blockchains.
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Fortunately for Poly Network, the attacker began returning the tokens the next day. While some speculated that they may have struggled to sell the tokens, someone claiming to be the attacker said they had only stolen them “for fun”.
By the end of the week, all assets were returned, Poly Network said, except $33m-worth of ‘stablecoin’ Tether, which had been frozen immediately after the attack.
Shortly after the theft, Steven Dickens, senior analyst at technology research company Futurum, wrote that it was likely to bolster the security of decentralised finance (DeFi) systems in the long run, but discredit them in the short term. “While lessons need to be learned for sure,” he wrote, “we need to be aware of the progress made so far by the DeFi community [which is for all] intents and purposes less than a decade old.”
2. Coincheck, 2018 – $547m
In January 2018, Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck revealed that $547m in lesser-known cryptocurrency NEM had been stolen. The company admitted that it had stored the assets in a ‘hot wallet’, meaning a cryptocurrency store that is connected to the internet and therefore vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches.
Shortly after the incident, 16 of Japan’s crypto exchanges merged to form a self-regulatory body. The country’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Association, ordered all exchanges to report on their cybersecurity defences.
At the time of the attack, Coincheck was one of the most high-profile exchanges in Japan, which was then among the biggest markets for crypto trading. A few months later, Coincheck was acquired by financial services provider Monex Group.
It is still unknown who undertook the attack, but more than 30 people have been arrested in Japan in connection with selling the stolen assets.
3. Mt. Gox, 2014 – $480m
The first widely publicised – and perhaps still the best-known – crypto heist was the theft of $480m in Bitcoin from another Japanese exchange, Mt. Gox, in 2014.
Founded in 2010 as a site for trading ‘Magic the Gathering’ game cards, by 2014 Mt. Gox was handling over 70% of all Bitcoin transactions. In February of that year, it abruptly suspended trading, closed its exchange services and filed for bankruptcy protection.
Soon after, it revealed that up to 850,000 Bitcoins had gone missing, presumed stolen. Around 7% of all Bitcoin in circulation at the time, the haul was then worth around $480m. Today, it would be closer to $35bn.
Mark Karpeles, CEO of Mt. Gox at the time of the theft, was later arrested on unrelated charges and, he claims, interrogated for eight hours a day. “I was asked about the missing Bitcoins,” he told reporters. “I was even asked if I was Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.”
But in 2016, a US investigation concluded that Mt. Gox had been hacked by an outsider.
4. KuCoin, 2020 – $285m
In September 2020, Singapore-headquartered crypto exchange KuCoin revealed that $275m worth of cryptocurrency had been stolen, including $127m in ERC20 tokens, which are used in Ethereum smart contracts. CEO Johnny Lyu revealed that hackers had obtained the private keys to the exchange’s ‘hot wallets’.
The majority of the stolen tokens were recovered, and the remaining 16% in stolen funds was covered by KuCoin’s insurance, the company said in February 2021, so all customers were reimbursed.
In an interview with Bitcoin.com a year after the theft, Lyu outlined the security enhancements KuCoin had implemented as a result. These included a new risk control system, a network security upgrade, and a restructuring of its cybersecurity team. “The experience gained from this incident will enable us to quickly advise and support other industry partners in the event of a security crisis in the future,” he said.
Despite the hack, KuCoin remains the fifth most popular crypto exchange, according to the CoinMarketCap website.
5. BitGrail, 2018 – $170m
A matter of weeks after the Coincheck heist, a smaller Italian crypto exchange called BitGrail revealed that hackers had stolen $170m in niche cryptocurrency Nano. One Reddit user claimed to have lost $1.4m in the hack. The exchange closed down, unable to repay its customers.
An Italian court later found that the coins had been removed from the exchange’s wallets many months before, perhaps as early as June 2017, and found the company’s CEO to be a fault for its lack of security controls.
6. Bitfinex, 2016 – $72m
Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Bitfinex saw 120,000 Bitcoin, at the time worth $72m, stolen in 2016. The incident saw the proceeds of 2,000 transactions re-routed into a single wallet controlled by the hackers, which caused the value of Bitcoin to plummet by 20%. Though the funds were not recovered at the time, last month the US Department of Justice announced it had seized proceeds from the heist, now worth $3.6bn thanks to Bitcoin’s rocketing value.
The largest seizure of stolen digital assets in history, the raid by the department’s new National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team saw two people, Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, arrested and charged with “alleged conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency”.
7. NiceHash, 2017 – $64m
Just under 4,700 Bitcoin, at the time worth $64m, were pilfered in a breach of cryptocurrency mining marketplace NiceHash in 2017. Hackers infiltrated the website’s payment system to seize the Bitcoin.
The breach, dubbed “the largest theft in Ukrainian history” by NiceHash CMO Andrej Skraba, is thought to have been the work of North Korea-based Lazarus group, and last year an indictment was issued by a court in Los Angeles for three hackers said to be behind the attack. It had a profound effect on the NiceHash, which spent the next three years paying back affected customers from its profits. It announced in December 2020 that it completed reimbursements to all its clients.
8. Zaif, 2018 – $60m.
In 2018 hackers targeted Japanese crypto-exchange Zaif, and obtained cryptocurrency which was, at the time, worth $60m. The hackers syphoned off the Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Monacoin from Zaif’s “hot wallets”, crypto wallets which have lighter security measures in place so that they can be used for immediate transactions.
While most of the funds came from Zaif’s customers, the exchange itself was also out of pocket as 32% of the crypto-currencies taken came from its reserves. The company refunded customers immediately, taking out loans to ensure it could meet its obligations.


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BMW Group and Tata Technologies Join Forces to Drive Automotive Innovation in India
Revolutionizing Wheels, BMW & Tata Tech's Epic Collaboration Unveiled
2 April 2024
BMW Group and Tata Technologies form a joint venture to establish automotive software and IT development hubs in key Indian cities.
The collaboration aims to drive innovation in software-defined vehicles, automated driving, and digital services.
With equal partnership stakes, the venture leverages the expertise of both companies to pioneer advancements in automotive technology.
In a groundbreaking collaboration, German luxury carmaker BMW Group and Indian powerhouse Tata Technologies have forged a strategic partnership to establish an automotive software and IT development hub in key Indian cities. This joint venture, announced recently, marks a significant milestone in the automotive industry, signaling a shift towards digitalization and innovation in vehicle technology.
The agreement outlines the establishment of development and operations centers primarily in Bengaluru and Pune, with a focus on business IT solutions in Chennai. This strategic positioning leverages the abundant talent pool and digital engineering expertise present in India, setting the stage for BMW Group's expansion of software coding capabilities globally. With Tata Technologies bringing its wealth of experience and resources to the table, the joint venture promises to be a formidable force in shaping the future of automotive technology.
The scope of the joint venture extends beyond conventional automotive software development. It aims to spearhead advancements in software-defined vehicles (SDV), automated driving, infotainment, and digital services. This ambitious agenda underscores both companies' commitment to staying at the forefront of technological innovation and delivering cutting-edge solutions to customers worldwide.
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With each partner holding a 50% stake in the venture, the collaboration is poised to capitalize on the strengths of both BMW Group and Tata Technologies. The infusion of talent, coupled with BMW Group's global reach and Tata Technologies' proven track record in engineering and technology services, sets a solid foundation for success.
The announcement has generated considerable excitement in the market, with Tata Technologies witnessing a surge in its stock value following the news. Investors and industry observers alike are optimistic about the prospects of this partnership, recognizing its potential to drive significant value creation and propel digital transformation in the automotive sector.
As the automotive landscape evolves rapidly, alliances such as this joint venture between BMW Group and Tata Technologies highlight the importance of collaboration in navigating the complexities of technological innovation. By pooling their resources, expertise, and vision, these two industry giants are poised to revolutionize the automotive software landscape and shape the future of mobility.