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On December 17th, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against Sprint Corp. for alleged violations of the Dodd-Frank Act for “cramming”—illegally billing wireless consumers for unauthorized third-party charges. Specifically, the CFPB argues that Sprint unfairly billed its customers for unauthorized charges by:
- Enrolling customers in third-party billing without their authorization;
- Giving third parties access to its customers and its billing system without implementing adequate compliance controls;
- Failing to adequately resolve customer disputes; and
- Ignoring warnings from customers, government agencies, and public-interest groups.
CFPB Director Richard Cordray delivered prepared remarks at a press call, “[a]s the use of mobile payments grows, we will continue to hold wireless carriers accountable for illegal third-party billing.” The CFPB seeks to compensate affected consumers and penalize Sprint to deter unauthorized third-party charges in the future.
CFPA / FCRA
On December 17th, the CFPB announced an enforcement action against Union Workers Credit Services (UWCS), a Texas-based company, for alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act for “deceiving consumers into paying fees to sign up for a sham credit card.” The CFPB argues that “the company falsely advertises a general-use credit card that, in actuality, can only be used to buy products from the company.” Additionally, the CFPB alleges that UWCS “deceptively implies an affiliation with unions by, among other things, using pictures of nurses, firefighters, and other public servants in its advertising.” According to Director Cordray, “[h]undreds of thousands of people, including a great many union members who were specially targeted, have been tricked into spending millions of dollars for a socalled credit card that can really only be used to buy the company’s own products.” Consequently, the CFPB’s enforcement action seeks to compensate the victims and enjoin UWCS from such action.
CFPB & CONGRESS
College Credit Card Agreements
On December 15th, the CFPB published a report entitled, “2014 College Credit Card Agreements: Annual Report to Congress.” The report includes information that card issuers submitted to the CFPB concerning agreements between credit card issuers and colleges or organizations affiliated with higher education institutions. Specifically, the report details the number of new accounts opened that resulted from agreements between issuers and colleges, as well as the compensation issuers paid to these institutions. The findings of the report include:
- The number of colleges, universities, and affiliated organizations sponsoring credit card programs decreased in 2013;
- The number of overall accounts issued under college credit card agreements also decreased in 2013; and
- The amount of compensation paid by issuers to institutions pursuant to these agreements decreased from the prior year, as listed in the report.
In addition to the report, the CFPB published a corresponding article and blog post discussing the continued decline of college credit card agreements.
On December 15th, the CFPB published in the Federal Register amendments to the 2013 Mortgage Rules under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (Regulation X) and the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z). “These proposed amendments focus primarily on clarifying, revising, or amending provisions regarding forceplaced insurance notices, policies and procedures, early intervention, and loss mitigation requirements under Regulation X’s servicing provisions; and periodic statement requirements under Regulation Z’s servicing provisions,” according to the Federal Register notice. The proposed amendments also concern proper compliance for “certain servicing requirements when a consumer is a potential or confirmed successor of interest, is in bankruptcy, or sends a cease of communication request under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.” The comment period will be open until March 16, 2015.
On December 15th, the CFPB published a notice in the Federal Register increasing, in accordance with inflation, the ceiling for 2015 for allowable charges under Section 612(f) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Consumer reporting agencies may now impose a reasonable charge to the consumer of up to $12.00 for a file disclosure.
Project Catalyst / Consumer Saving
On December 12th, the CFPB announced a Project Catalyst research pilot on consumer saving. The purpose of Project Catalyst is to “examine the effectiveness of efforts to promote consumer saving among prepaid card users,” according to the announcement. Specifically, the research will focus on low- and moderate-income prepaid card users who may not have access to traditional savings accounts. “This project can help [the CFPB] better understand how to promote saving among consumers, especially those who may be low-income and economically vulnerable,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray stated. According to the announcement, American Express will share insights with the CFPB on a trial program on encouraging saving among certain prepaid card users. In addition to the Project Catalyst research announcement, the CFPB published a corresponding blog post entitled, “Evaluating Ways to Promote Regular Saving Habits Among Prepaid Card Users.”


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As the fight over licensing rights in the tabletop industry begins to die down, Paizo has turned its attention to another issue of contention: AI-generated art. Talking broadly about both generated text and images, Paizo has stated on its blog that it will not employ the use of such tools because of the “ethical and legal issues” as well as the “serious threat they pose to the livelihoods” of artists and writers.
Paizo says that it “made its reputation with the assistance of countless traditional artists and writers, who are just as integral to the success of our games as our in-house editors, art directors, designers, and developers.” The firm stance is backed up by a promise to include anti-algorithm language into creative contracts. The company will additionally forbid AI-generated content on its Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite programs, which are third-party marketplaces where independent creators can sell work that is compatible with Paizo games.
“So long as the ethical and legal circumstances surrounding these programs remains murky and undefined, we are unwilling to associate our brands with the technology in any way,” Paizo said in its statement.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

domain: news


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U.S. Stocks Erase Early Losses as Retailers, Carmakers Advance
U.S. stocks erased an early loss to finish little changed, leaving the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the highest level since July, as improving sales at retailers and carmakers helped offset lower-than-forecast factory orders.
Ford Motor Co. (F) rose 1.5 percent after carmakers reported December sales that beat analysts’ estimates, capping the industry’s best year since 2008. Home Depot Inc. (HD), Lowe’s Cos. and Starbucks Corp. advanced at least 1.4 percent after the International Council of Shopping Centers increased its estimate for December retail-sales growth. Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) lost 3.1 percent after appointing Scott Thompson chief executive officer.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose less than 0.1 percent to 1,277.30 at 4 p.m. New York time, after dropping as much as 0.7 percent earlier. The benchmark index is at its highest level since Oct. 28. The Dow added 21.04 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,418.42 today.
“We started the day with a bit of a pullback from yesterday’s strong rise, and then the data that we got this morning helps the market and firms up the conviction that the U.S. economy is doing well,” Giri Cherukuri, head trader for Oakbrook Investments, which manages $2.7 billion in Lisle, Illinois, said in a telephone interview.
The S&P 500 lost (SPX) 0.04 point to 1,257.60 in 2011, the smallest annual change since 1947. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities surged 14 percent from last year’s lowest level on Oct. 3 through Dec. 30 as better-than-estimated economic data fueled optimism the world’s largest economy can shrug off concern over Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis. Stocks rallied yesterday, sending the Dow to the highest level since July 26, amid signs that manufacturing output is increasing from China to Australia and America.
U.S. equities fell earlier today as bookings for factory goods (TMNOCHNG) rose 1.8 percent after a revised 0.2 percent drop the prior month, data from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had estimated a 2 percent increase, according to the median forecast.
Global stocks also declined as UniCredit SpA, Italy’s largest bank, said it will sell new shares in a 7.5 billion-euro ($9.8 billion) offer to strengthen its capital position. The rights offer boosted concern that lenders may struggle to raise more capital to weather the region’s debt crisis. The European Central Bank reported overnight deposits from financial institutions rose to an all-time high and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the European Union is facing a recession of unknown scope.
Stocks of companies that rely on consumer discretionary spending had the biggest gain (S5COND) among S&P 500 industries, rising 0.7 percent as a group.
Retail sales at stores open more than a year may have gained as much as 4.5 percent in December, more than previously estimated, as U.S. shoppers pursued holiday discounts, the International Council of Shopping Centers said in a statement today. Same-store sales in December were earlier projected to have advanced as much as 4 percent, the trade group said.
Home Depot rallied 1.4 percent to $42.74. Lowe’s added 3.7 percent to $26.47, while Starbucks (SBUX) advanced 2 percent to $46.17. Ralph Lauren Corp. gained 4.2 percent to $142.88, Coach Inc. (COH) rose 2.6 percent to $61.59 and Urban Outfitters Inc. (URBN) increased 2.4 percent to $28.41.
Ford gained 1.5 percent to $11.30. The second-biggest U.S. automaker said total company sales in December increased 10 percent, the best since 2005, beating analysts’ estimate of 7.7 percent, and sales in the U.S. increased 17 percent in 2011.
TiVo Inc. (TIVO) rallied 10 percent to $9.82. The Dallas-based company settled a patent lawsuit over digital video recorders with AT&T Inc., which agreed to pay at least $215 million. TiVo, a pioneer in the market for set-top boxes that can record a TV program and play it back at the same time, had lost customers to offerings from TV-service providers including AT&T. TiVo accused those companies of using its patented time-warp technology.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) advanced 11 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $80.45. The company said users of its online movie and TV- streaming service watched more than 2 billion hours of content in the fourth quarter, exceeding the 1.2 billion-hour estimate of Richard Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG Research.
Yahoo dropped 3.1 percent to $15.78. The Internet company appointed Thompson, former president of EBay Inc. (EBAY)’s PayPal, as CEO four months after firing Carol Bartz for failing to drive a turnaround.
Yahoo has considered options including divestitures, and drew interest from multiple parties, according to a memo to employees in September. Chairman Roy Bostock said on a conference call that he has no plans to take Yahoo private. EBay tumbled 3.8 percent to $30.16.
Shares of financial companies declined 0.5 percent as a group in the S&P 500, trimming a steeper drop of as much as 1.6 percent. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) reversed losses, rising 0.2 percent to $5.81 after dropping as much as 3.1 percent earlier. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) gained 0.6 percent to $34.95 after falling 1.2 percent.
Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) tumbled 28 percent to 47 cents. The imaging company that lost 88 percent of its market value last year may file for bankruptcy protection this month or early February if it can’t sell digital patents, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the matter.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at firstname.lastname@example.org


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Snapchat is hoping to soothe user concerns after it updated its terms of services, leaving many wondering that the app was breaching people’s privacy.
It all started late last week when Snapchat rolled out a routine update that included broadly worded phrases, which many interpreted to mean Snapchat could save supposedly private snaps and sell them — a rumor that was perpetuated by “Harold and Kumar” actor Kal Penn in a tweet that was retweeted more than 2,000 times:
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) October 29, 2015
From there, the problem snowballed, assisted by misreporting from various outlets. U.K.’s Independent wrote that Snapchat can now “broadcast your private snaps;” The Sydney Morning Herald warned “Snapchat now owns your photos, even after they disappear.”
Not so, according to Snapchat.
The app aimed to clear up the “confusion” surrounding the rules, saying the rules were rewritten so “they’d read the way people actually talk.”
The company also once again warned people that it doesn’t have control over whether your annoying friends screenshot a snap, reinforcing the notion that just because Snapchat deletes a snap, it doesn’t mean its completely gone. “Because we continue to delete them from our servers as soon as they’re read, we could not — and do not — share them with advertisers or business partners.”
Snapchat admitted that its Terms of Services does give the app more ownership over snaps because of its new Live Stories tool, which lets people submit snaps for its 100 million users to see. “We need that license when it comes to, for example, Snaps submitted to Live Stories, where we have to be able to show those Stories around the world—and even replay them or syndicate them.”
Basically, if Snapchat ever wanted to take a screenshot of its Live Stories to use a television ad, for example, it can. Other social networks, like Facebook and Instagram, also contain these clauses in its terms of services.
Judging by Snapchat’s always punchy Twitter presence, some users were scared off by the legalese and deleted the app likely prompting this damage control. The app was retweeting dozens of messages like this:
Just for the snapchat retweet bc it makes me feel important but really forget all y’all haters! https://t.co/DbezrZ8yXO
— Sam Pereless (@twitsbysp) November 2, 2015
Still, the rule remains: Don’t snap anything that you don’t want your mom to see because Snapchat is not quite 100 percent ephemeral, as much as it would like to be.
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Farmers are finding that dry fertilizer spreaders can pay for themselves given the right configuration.
Spinner spreaders aren’t just for your local fertilizer dealer anymore. Those high-capacity box rigs that you’d hire someone to pull are now being purchased by farmers who have enough acres to justify the price tag. Farmers buying say it gives them more control over when their dry, granular fertilizer is applied.
“Definitely the market is shifting to growers because they are getting bigger,” says Ingrid Livingston, marketing director for New Leader, the nation’s largest spreader manufacturer. “If they have enough acres, 3,000 to 5,000, they know that long-term if they buy this and apply dry fertilizer themselves, it will pay for itself.”
John Fulton, extension specialist with Auburn University, estimates sales of these dry boxes in his home state of Alabama have increased anywhere from 20 to 50 percent among farmers in the last two years.
Farmers are typically buying the trailer-drawn units that can be pulled behind a tractor or mounting units on truck frames they already own. Self-propelled sprayers equipped with dry-box capabilities provide another option. Some farmers have worked their way up to commercial truck-propelled rigs called “floaters” on the used market.
The uptick in sales coincides with changes in nutrient management practices. In the last two years, there has been a push in topdressing corn. Spinners mounted on a high-clearance frame give farmers another way, in addition to side-dress units, to do that.
“I think this [topdressing trend] started because farmers are looking for ways to supply N after wet springs when some of the pre-plant N gets lost,” says Dr. Fabian Fernandez, crop sciences professor with the University of Minnesota.
Another driver is the increased use of micronutrients, including zinc, boron, and manganese associated with grid soil sampling. The prescription created from the sampling often calls for rate changes of each nutrient independently of the other nutrients. Spreaders can be equipped with dividers that allow for multi-product application in a single trip.
“This capability really developed a couple decades ago with the evolution of air machines in the application market,” says Pauley Bradley, John Deere nutrient application product manager. “It’s only been in the last ten years that the same capabilities to compartmentalize dry fertilizer sources that independently vary their rate on the go were built into dry spinner spreaders.”
Farmers who are looking to buy a new spinner spreader will find the units have changed a lot in the last 10 years. In the old days, they got a bad rap for having an uneven application and limited spread width that would take days to cover fields. New designs and technologies, coupled with improved fertilizer formulations, have addressed those issues (see sidebar on what to look for).
“Ten years ago, the maximum spread width was 50 to 60 ft., so it would take time to put out granular fertilizer,” says Auburn University’s Fulton. “But today, you can get a spreader applying fertilizer 90 to 100 feet, and cover a lot of acres per hour.”
Adds John Deere’s Bradley: “Some fertilizer manufactures have optimized their formulation to make their prills harder and a little larger so the spinners throw them further. This translates to wider spread widths (90 or 100 ft. rather than 70 or 80 ft.) which means fewer passes in the field and more acres per hour/day.”
Next, you'll find some of the technologies and features to consider when shopping for a spinner spreader


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It will be smarter. It will be faster. It will want to serve you nitrogen-infused cold brew.
Coffee outfit Cafe X, which over the last two years has become a symbol of workforce automation in the Bay Area, is preparing to unveil a new robot barista at its Coffeebar 2.0 outpost, opening Feb. 27 in One Bush Plaza.
The robot will be capable of serving three specialty drinks every 40 seconds, including the increasingly trendy nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee. According to the company, the robot is the first of its kind in the world.
Though Cafe X’s robots steal headlines, the company is not completely devoid of human employees. Greeters work at the cafes and explain to customers how the operation works while the robots handle the orders.
Cafe X community manager Sam Blum said via email that the new robot barista will have “a bit more personality” and will hopefully make the “Cafe X experience even better.”
Since being founded in 2015 by entrepreneur Henry Hu, rapid expansion has been on the menu for the San Francisco-based coffee outfit. A cafe on Market St. near Montgomery St. opened this month — and like the original location in the Metreon at 4th and Market and the cafe that’s opening next week, it has a robotic barista.
The robotic arms cost $25,000, according to Hu. High-end espresso machines with multiple spigots can cost upward of $19,000.
Still, the $25,000 price tag is far less than what a coffee outfit would pay a human barista over multiple years, especially in California, where the minimum wage is marching toward $15.
Outside of being charming and serving nitrogen-infused cold brew, Cafe X’s new robot will also have the capacity to prepare a dozen or so cold and hot drinks, including cafe lattes for $3 per 8-ounce cup and espressos at around $4 for 12 ounces.
Cafe X: One Bush Plaza at 1 Bush St.; Opens Feb. 27


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The 15th annual Yadkin Valley Wine Festival came to a close and this year the participation was anything but stale. Guests started rolling into Elkin Municipal Park long before the festivities began at 11 a.m. Soon the grounds were packed with people from across the country eager to taste the vineyards of the Yadkin Valley.
“We’ve been participating in the festival ever since the beginning and to me this is one of the best wine festivals in the state,” said Steven Mchone, head winemaker of RagApple Lassie Vineyards. “You have wide open space, big setups, lots of people here and plenty of room. My favorite thing though has to be the people. We get great feedback from all over the state.”
The festival originally started 15 years ago when members of the Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce wanted to do a celebration to showcase the region’s wineries, promote the public, and bring attention to the valley.
As bands entertained throughout the day, Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and agriculture, stumbled about the festival grounds with his goblet.
“While exploring other festivals to see how they did it, they said you’ve got to have a Bacchus,” said local resident Gary Maxey, dressed up as Bacchus. “They asked ‘where do I find a Bacchus’ and they said just find a fat guy with a beard. I’ve been playing the part ever since and I enjoy it, especially just getting to meet people throughout the day.”
The wine festival is a great destination for people from across the country, not just the local area. People were coming from the tip of Florida and the northern states to try out the Yadkin Valley’s wineries and vineyards.
One of the festival’s memorable events is the grape stomp. People of all ages, young kids and adults in their 50s, were racing to see who could stomp the most grapes and fill their jar up the fastest.
“They asked me to do it 15 years ago and after figuring out a way to do it, we’ve been sponsoring it ever since,” said Gambill Aldridge of Basin Creek Reality. “Everybody gets excited for it. I think the ‘I Love Lucy’ show is a good reason why it’s so popular. It also gives something for kids to do as there really aren’t that many activities for them.”
For many new vineyards, the festival gives an opportunity to come out and promote their wines to the public.
“Our business has only been here a couple years so this has been a great way to spread the word,” said Jan Wahl, owner of Adagio Winery in Elkin. “The first time we participated we came to the festival two weeks after we opened our business and we only had three wines to promote. Now it’s three years later and that number’s gone up to eight. The festival has played a huge part in our expansion and we always try to come back when we can.”
Wine was not the only commodity people could indulge in. The smell of gyros and Italian sausage filled the air during lunchtime and in the hot sun, many guests treated themselves an ice cream cone. Crispin Kettle Corn has been popping corn at the fesival for three years.
“One thing that keeps drawing us back is the impressive job the chamber has done in arranging this event,” said Kiera Hein of Crispin Kettle Corn with her husband, Robert Hein. “They go around every single vendor and give them free wine glasses and a wrist band and they let them go out and try any wine they want during or after the festival. It’s great that we can be a part of it. Plus it allows us to tell customers what we’ve discovered during our stay. That’s really cool and not a lot of events will do that.”
The festival is also an opportunity for local artists and craftsmen to come out. Woodcutters, weavers, potters and jewelers all set up shop along the creek to show off their work.
“It’s a good time for crafts because a lot of people like something that’s original that they won’t find anywhere else,” said Jo Drewery of BeadJeweled Designs. “We’ve been selling all kinds of beads, jewelry, crystals, glassware and precious stones. We incorporate them into earrings and necklaces, including wine bottle themes to keep with the festival’s mood.”
One festival invention that kept people interested was Tracey Luebber’s Swankey. Part bag, part wine cooler, her portable summer wine carrier caught the attention of countless guests as being the answer to their summer drinking endeavors.
“The invention came out of necessity,” said Tracey Luebbers, inventor and owner of The Swankey Beverage Tote. “I was inspired to make it while going to swimming pools and watching friends find ways to carry beverages, especially box and bottle wines. I imagined a beach bag that was also a cooler. This is our first time here for the festival and we love it. It’s always fun to see people react to the product.”
The weather managed to hold off for the most part Saturday. Festival goers got to enjoy a beautiful day until about 3 p.m. when the first raindrops started coming down. A thunderstorm rolled in about four just as most people were heading out. Still, it was nice of the weather to hold off for the majority of the festival.
“I’ll admit, I was a little bit worried about the weather for today,” said Mchone. “There’s always a chance of thunderstorms this time of the year but I think the festival is doing so well thanks to the gorgeous weather we’ve ended up having today.”
Despite the thunderous ending, it was a fantastic day for many guests who are looking forward to the next festival.
“We just came up here for one of my best friend’s graduation parties,” said Sandra, Abigail and Brittany Strickland from Fayetteville. “We found out this was going on so we said ‘hey, let’s go to the festival!’ We’ve loved it so far and if we get a chance to come back we definitely will.”
Troy Brooks may be reached at 336-258-4058.


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Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sukkur Electric Power Supply Company (SEPCO) Saeed Ahmed Dawach on Sunday said that vigilance cells will be set up to monitor the performance of its power sector officers. On the directives of competent authorities, SEPCO engineers would pay the surprise visits in their respective areas and open courts would be conducted in their jurisdiction to address the grievances of consumers. Speaking in a gathering, the CEO said that 'Kunda' culture have been eliminated from the SEPCO and public problems were being resolved at their doorsteps.
He said that he would monitor action on complaints submitted by the consumers through the boxes which he had asked the SDOs to place in various offices. 'The consumers will see prompt action on their complaints,' he added.


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XSEED Games has announced two brand new The Legend of Heroes games for the PC, PS3 and PS Vita. The first game is the third chapter in the Trails in the Sky series, which will be out in 2017 exclusively for the PC. The second game is the sequel to Trails of Cold Steel for the PS3 and PS Vita. It is currently set for a release in Fall 2016.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has just received its long awaited Second Chapter at the end of last year. It was released for the PSP, PS Vita and PC. The game faced a lot of development issues related to the localization and was delayed numerous times until it finally received a release in October 2015.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II is the sequel to the first game that was also released at the end of last year for the PS3 and PS Vita. It is currently confirmed for a release in Fall 2016 on the same platforms.
In addition to these two announcements, XSEED Games is also putting the whole series on sale across Steam, GOG.com and PlayStation Store. The first Trails in the Sky is currently available in a sale for half off while the second chapter can be bought for $30 off on Steam GOG.com and PlayStation Store.
XSEED Games have also announced the total sales for the series so far and according to them, the series has now sold more than 350 thousand copies across Steam, GOG.com and PlayStation Store.


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A person walks previous TSMC’s brand on the firm’s headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Sam Yeh | AFP | Getty Photographs
Merchandise that depend on semiconductors are set to get much more costly as chip foundries put together to extend their costs, in response to analysts.
“Foundries have already elevated costs 10-20% up to now 12 months,” Bain semiconductor analyst Peter Hanbury instructed CNBC. “We anticipate an additional spherical of value will increase this 12 months, however smaller (i.e. 5-7%).”
The foundries are rising their costs partly as a result of they’ll, but additionally as a result of it is changing into dearer for them to fund their rising operations.
“The chemical compounds utilized in [chip] manufacturing have elevated 10-20%,” Hanbury mentioned. “Equally, the labor required to construct new semiconductor amenities has additionally seen shortages and elevated wage charges.”
TSMC warned purchasers for the second time in lower than a 12 months that it plans to boost costs, Nikkei Asia reported final Tuesday, citing folks briefed on the matter.
The Hsinchu-headquartered agency is reportedly planning to extend its costs by single digit share factors. It has cited looming inflation considerations, rising prices and its personal enlargement plans as the explanation for the worth rises.
A spokesperson for TSMC instructed CNBC that the corporate doesn’t touch upon its pricing.
Elsewhere, rival Samsung is about to extend its chipmaking costs by as much as 20%, in response to a Bloomberg report final Friday. Samsung didn’t instantly reply to a CNBC request for remark.
“With the continued scarcity of semiconductor chips the producers are capable of cost a premium as clients proceed pushing to safe provide,” Hanbury mentioned, including that his agency expects the scarcity to begin to ease on sure chips by the top of the 12 months.
Intel didn’t instantly reply to a CNBC request for remark.
Forrester analyst Glenn O’Donnell instructed CNBC that rising chip costs ought to shock no one within the present financial local weather, including that he expects costs to rise about 10-15%, or roughly according to inflation.
During the last two years, the coronavirus pandemic has helped to gas a worldwide chip scarcity.
“Chipmakers face their very own rising provide points which might be exacerbated by the Ukraine battle … and demand stays excessive whereas provide stays constrained,” O’Donnell mentioned. “Vitality costs are additionally on a tear, together with electrical energy. Chipmaking requires an infinite quantity of electrical energy.”
Regardless of an intensifying price of residing disaster, firms that combine chips into their merchandise could have to begin passing on prices to customers.
“Elevated costs for chips will add stress to the entire downstream clients who will both have to move on these value will increase to their clients, which will probably be powerful within the present atmosphere, or settle for decrease profitability,” Hanbury mentioned.
O’Donnell mentioned that he expects PCs, automobiles, toys, shopper electronics, home equipment, and lots of different merchandise to get dearer.
“Margins are already tight on such merchandise, so that they haven’t any alternative however to boost costs,” he mentioned.
Syed Alam, international semiconductor lead at Accenture, instructed CNBC that the magnitude of any value will increase will rely on the share of semiconductor price within the total product price. He added that it’s going to additionally rely upon the power for producers to chop prices in different areas and the aggressive panorama of every product class.
” these elements, merchandise that use extra superior chips comparable to GPUs (graphics processing models) and high-end CPUs (central processing models) are prone to go up in value,” Alam mentioned.
However some sectors are beginning to see lowered demand they usually’ll wrestle to move these price will increase on to their clients, Hanbury mentioned. “For instance, the smartphone market has seen lowered demand, so that they won’t be able to move on these will increase as a lot,” he defined.


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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday asked a federal court to pause Microsoft from completing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, arguing that the deal would harm competition in the video game market. With this move, the regulator is making formal a request that was first reported earlier this month.
Reuters reports that the FTC filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the deal would give Microsoft control of an unfair proportion of the games market.
The FTC’s complaint argues that the deal would allow Microsoft to “raise prices, reduce innovation, and stifle competition” in the video game market. Also, the agency also alleges that the deal would harm consumers by reducing the number of choices available to them.
Microsoft has argued that the deal would not harm competition and would instead benefit consumers by allowing Microsoft to invest in new games and services. The company has also said that it would create new jobs and boost innovation in the video game industry. A hearing on the FTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for July 18.
Why is the FTC opposed to the deal?
The FTC filed a lawsuit against the deal in its in-house court in December 2022, alleging that it would substantially lessen competition in the video game industry and harm millions of consumers4.
Amongst the concerns the regulator has are:
- Microsoft would have the incentive to raise prices, restrict access or degrade quality of Activision’s games on rival platforms such as Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Switch.
- The deal would reduce innovation and diversity in the video game market, by eliminating an independent competitor and creating a dominant player with significant market power.
- The deal would harm competition in cloud gaming services, by giving Microsoft an unfair advantage over rivals such as Sony, Google, and Amazon.
Microsoft’s Hit and Miss Success with Regulators
If Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard, it will be its largest deal ever and it will become the second-biggest game maker in the world after Nintendo. More than 400 million monthly active players enjoy Activision Blizzard’s franchises, which include Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch. The deal is awaiting approval from the FTC, which is expected to announce its decision by the end of this year.
Microsoft has been left awaiting the FTC’s verdict on its $69 billion bid for Activision Blizzard. The deal would make Microsoft a gaming powerhouse, but it could also fall apart if the FTC says no. Microsoft has won over many regulators around the world who have given the green light to the deal. Even the tough European Commission has said yes, despite its reputation for cracking down on Big Tech. Japan has also given its blessing, despite the potential threat to its own gaming legends Sony and Nintendo.
But not everyone is happy with the deal. The UK’s CMA has slammed the brakes on the deal, saying it would hurt competition and innovation in cloud gaming. Microsoft is fighting back, appealing the decision and threatening to pull Activision games from the UK market if the CMA doesn’t budge.


text: An anonymous reader writes "At the last Apple special event, Steve Jobs was almost bragging about the fact that 70% of new cars sold in the U.S. this year had (optional!) iPod 'integration' available ... Obviously, he didn't talk about the rest of the world. But most of all, what Steve didn't tell us is how crappy the existing "integration" solutions actually are! Here is a review of actual iPod car integration solutions showcased Apple Expo 2006 Paris. Some of the nicest cars (like the Audi TT for example) don't necessarily have the best iPod interfaces."


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.NET News Desk
Whatever the Apple iPad Is, It Apparently Leaks Like a Sieve
Launch date changed to January 27
By: Maureen O'Gara
Jan. 26, 2010 05:45 PM
iPad on Ulitzer - There may be little left for Apple to announce about its purported tablet or iSlate come January 27, a date change since January 26 was noised about. The rumor mill is slowly teasing out all its secrets.
The great unveiling, according to the Financial Times, is still supposed to be at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco but now it’s supposedly on the last Wednesday of the month rather than the last Tuesday.
The Wall Street Journal came running out late Monday with the news – shared by “people briefed by the company” – that Apple won’t start delivering the widget until March, another date previously reported.
The New York Times says the same thing. It also said there “hasn’t been this much hype about a tablet since Moses came down from the mountain.”
The Journal says it heard the dingus will have a netbook-like diagonal 10- to 11-inch screen, putting it at odds with those who claim it’s more like seven inches but apparently confirming what others said right after Christmas and the former head of Google China Kai-Fu Lee said on his personal blog. The Journal allows that Apple could come out with multiple versions at different price points although it guided towards roughly a thousand bucks, “possibly including a subscription to a nationwide Wi-Fi wireless service.”
It’s convinced the device will be multi-purpose and let users watch movies and TV shows, play games, surf the web and read e-books, textbooks and whatever’s left of newspapers.
There’s been some debate over whether the thing’s a full-fledged computer or only a big iPod Touch. The former would mean it could run Windows 7 and coveted Windows apps. And at a thousand bucks a pop it better be a computer – true even at the ~$800 Gismodo’s saying.
Apple Inside thinks the tablet’s touch screen keyboard will have a tactile, Braille-like feel based on a newly discovered patent. A boon for people who touch-type.
DigiTimes says Foxconn, which already makes iPods and iPhones, is gonna make the thing.
Australia’s Smarthouse says Google will follow with an Android-based tablet – others say the Chrome OS – made and sold by HTC that’s built around a Qualcomm processor and some newfangled Adobe software.
Phone Arena, a blog few have heard of, claims to be quoting Apple internal documents in saying the Apple device is built on a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip. We think not. To Intel’s chagrin Apple’s iPhone uses an ARM chip and the tablet may too but maybe Apple is using its 2008 PA Semi acquisition for the tablet. PA did power-efficient PowerPCs before it got bought. Goodness knows what it’s doing now.
Otherwise Phone Arena claims the tablet can support 2GB-8GB of RAM with a 120GB SATA drive and has a webcam, two USB ports, an SD slot, stereo speakers, gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an operating system called Mac OS X Clouded Leopard 10.7.
It also says it will include iTunes, Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari of course, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, Photo Booth and Front Row.
It says the touch screen won’t show fingerprints.
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Fortnite's five-month iOS revenue on par with Clash Royale
Epic's blockbuster reaches $200 million revenue on the App Store, according to Sensor Tower estimates
Fortnite's iOS revenue is at the same level as Supercell's Clash Royale after five months on the App Store, according to new data from Sensor Tower.
Epic's hugely popular battle royale game launched on iOS in mid-March, and earned $100 million in just 90 days.
Fortnite's iOS revenue has increased to $200 million in the time since, according to estimates from Sensor Tower, putting it on a par with Supercell's Clash Royale in a similar timeframe.
The game's biggest market on iOS, by far, is the United States, which accounts for 63 per cent of that $200 million. The next biggest iOS market is the UK, with just 5 per cent of the total.
For most releases, Sensor Tower uses combined estimates from both the App Store and Google Play, but that isn't possible for Fortnite. Earlier this month, Epic announced that it would be skipping the official storefront, opting instead to offer its own launcher for Android.
"The 30 per cent store tax is a high cost in a world where game developers' 70 per cent must cover all the cost of developing, operating, and supporting their games," Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said.
"There's a rationale for this on console where there's enormous investment in hardware, often sold below cost, and marketing campaigns in broad partnership with publishers. But on open platforms, 30 per cent is disproportionate to the cost of the services these stores perform, such as payment processing, download bandwidth, and customer service."
Sweeney also said that Epic preferred to build, "a direct relationship with all our customers."


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Aluminum producer hit by “severe” ransomware attack
One of the world’s largest aluminum producers Norsk Hydro was hit by a cyber attack late on Monday evening, bringing parts of its production to a halt. The company was forced to shut down several of its metal extrusion and rolled product plants, while its giant smelters were being operated manually in Norway.
According to the Norwegian National Security Authority (NNSA), the ransomware attack used was a virus known as Lockergoga, which encrypts computer files and demands payment to unlock them. However, the company allegedly intends to deal with this by restoring the files from its extensive backup servers. The attack began in the United States and escalated overnight, infecting the IT systems across a majority of its operations in the US and Europe. Hydro’s production issues pushed aluminum prices to a three-month high on the London Metal Exchange and its shares momentarily fell by as much as 3.4%. The attack highlights the critical importance of strong cyber security as the industry increases automation in its processes and systems, particularly in an industry dominated only by a few firms, leaving it more vulnerable to supply chain disruption.
You can read more on this story here.
Uber Freight en route to Europe
Uber Freight’s global expansion plans are underway as it plans to bring its application to Europe this April. The application, which matches carriers with shippers, is expected to roll out in Europe on Wednesday, starting with the Netherlands. The company announced that local carriers and drivers will be able to book and move loads with Uber freight within the next few weeks.
According to Uber Freight, the European truckload market is currently a $400 billion industry and the 3rd largest in the world next to China and the US. The industry is facing a number of challenges such as a “severe shortage of drivers” and load inefficiencies. CEO Lior Ron wrote that 21 percent of total kilometers travelled by truck drivers are empty runs. “Inefficiency of this scale results in shippers struggling to find available drivers to move their goods”, Ron continued. The company has already made a strong impression on the US: The app has been downloaded over 328,000 times and 12% of 350,000 US operators have completed the Uber Freight onboarding process. Since March of last year, several new programs and features have been introduced, including Uber Freight Plus which offers discounts on services such as fuel, tires and phone plans.
For more information on this, click here.
The most acute driver shortage in decades
A report by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) found that one fifth of driver positions in the European road transport sector are currently unfilled, in what is seen to be the most acute driver shortage in decades. The report’s findings are based on insight from various industry stakeholders and associations and the results of two surveys conducted by the IRU.
Polls from October 2018 to January 2019 revealed a clear driver shortage of 21% in the freight transport sector and 19% in the bus and coach sector. The shortage is only expected to worsen and is predicted to reach 40% in both sectors as demand rises this year. Here are some key figures from the report:
– 57% of male drivers and 63% of female drivers believe the poor image of the profession is stifling recruitment.
– 79% of drivers believe the difficulty of attracting women to the profession is one of the top reasons for the driver shortage. Data from the International Transport Forum shows female drivers make up just 2% of European road transport drivers.
– 70% of drivers aged 25-34 believe the difficulty of attracting young drivers is one of main reasons for the driver shortage.
– 76% of drivers believe that working conditions deter people from entering the profession and 77% think extended periods away from home is a key deterrent.
To read more about the report’s findings, click here.
Have a great weekend.


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Nashville, Tennessee, September 8, 2015 – Electronic Funds Source LLC (EFS), a leading innovator of customized corporate payment solutions, announces another new transportation customer, Abilene Motor Express, to transition to the EFS payments platform.
Abilene Motor Express, headquartered in Richmond, VA, is the latest trucking company to move its payments business to EFS. Abilene Motor Express selected EFS because of its forward-thinking approach and how it’s using leading technology to help move the industry forward. “EFS helped us realize tremendous efficiencies with their real-time interface into our existing transportation management software,” said Alan Jones, VP of Operations for Abilene Motor Express.
EFS built a real-time interactive interface into Abilene Motor Express’ existing transportation management software (TMS) which eliminated manual and multi-step processes in managing their payments and provided more visibility and control over their transactions. “Before we began discussions with EFS, we had integration into our TMS, but had no idea of the true benefit a real-time interface could bring to our operations and our business. We have significantly improved our operational efficiency and have better quality data overall,” said Jones.
“We’re thrilled to have Abilene Motor Express as the latest carrier to implement on the EFS platform,” said Tim Hampton, SVP Fleet Sales for EFS. “EFS continues to focus on bringing new technologies to help our customers – and the industry – improve efficiencies and performance. This is another great example of how EFS is continuing to help move our industry forward, making payments smarter for our customers and the industry we serve,” said Hampton.


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Update: The event is now over, but the video can still be replayed from Apple's event page.
Today at 10 a.m. Apple will be hosting a presentation on the company's next efforts for the Mac OS as well as upcoming and future models of the Macintosh. This morning a number of media outlets are receiving word from Apple that the event will be streamed live from Apple's Web site.
CNET will be covering the event on our live blog, and
currently there is no link on the Apple Web site for the media event, but the announcement by Apple mentions the event will be available using Apple's HTTP-streaming technologies that are based on open standards.
The event should be viewable on any Mac running Safari Web browser, as well as an iPhone or iPod Touch running iOS 3.0 or greater, or an iPad. The event will begin at 10 a.m. PDT and will be streamed from the following page:
October 20 Back to the Mac Event
(The event is now over, but the video can be replayed from the event page.)
If you do not have access to an Apple device that meets these requirements, or otherwise cannot view the stream, be sure to check out.
reading•Apple to stream 'Back to the Mac' event live
Apr 22•Apple seen as slightly more beneficial to society than Facebook
Apr 21•Apple is now replacing batteries for cheaper MacBook Pro laptops
Apr 21•2018 iPhone may cost half the price of an iPhone X
Apr 21•Google wants to kill SMS texting, Tim Cook says iPads and Macs aren't merging


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Rumors of potential C|Net sale spur market speculation
An AP newswire article in The Mercury News (subscription required) reports that:
CNET Networks' stock surged more than 10 percent Thursday based on a published report that the company is looking for a buyer.
The New York Post reported the technology information portal may be "shopping itself'' to investors, including Viacom and InterActiveCorp, setting off intense speculation among analysts and shareholders.
CNET, which provides online news, product reviews and software downloads, would not comment on the rumors.
"The company does have some motivating factors to sell,'' said Scott Kessler, an analyst at Standard & Poor's. "I think it's likely they could pursue an exit strategy.''
Analysts cautioned that CNET's price tag of at least $1.75 billion could make finding a buyer difficult in the short term.
While another major portal, Ask Jeeves Inc., sold for a similar price last month, Kessler said CNET's debt is heavy and its stock is overvalued, generating less interest.


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Danaher's announcement of its plans to acquire Cepheid comes months after it spun off some businesses to better focus on healthcare-related offerings.
Danaher (Washington, DC) said Tuesday that it will spend $4 billion to acquire Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA), which has built a more than half a billion dollar a year business off a reputation for accurate and easy to use molecular systems and tests.
The $53 per share price that Danaher quoted marked a 53% premium off Cepheid's closing price on the Nasdaq last Friday, and Cepheid's share price shot up accordingly on Tuesday, closing at $52.53 per share.
Cepheid's fully automated GeneXpert systems, among other applications, provide test results for the management of infectious diseases. The company expects to bring in $618 to $635 million in revenues in 2016, up from $539 million the previous year.
Danaher's President and CEO Thomas P. Joyce Jr. described Cepheid as an excellent complement to Danaher's existing $5 billion diagnostics segment, expanding Danaher's ability to grow.
"Cepheid's extensive installed base, test menu and innovative product offering contribute to its market leadership in molecular diagnostics and we expect it to strengthen our position in this high-growth segment," Joyce said.
Danaher has been increasingly focused on healthcare-related businesses. In July, a new company called Fortive Corp. was created, containing what had been Danaher's test and measurement, industrial technologies, and petroleum businesses. The life sciences, diagnostics, and dental businesses remained under the Danaher name.
The $4 billion purchase of Cepheid marks a major acquisition in the medical device space, though dwarfed by the mega deals of past years such as Medtronic's $50 merger with Covidien. A recent report by EP Vantage noted: "The disappearance of the megadeal from the 2016 menu could be because the industry has consolidated as much as possible for now: any more overlap would cause too many antitrust issues to be worthwhile."
Both Danaher and Cepheid's boards have approved the deal, which is expected to close by the end of 2016 pending shareholder approval and customary closing conditions.
Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.
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[Money image courtesy of Tracy O per Creative Commons license]


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Revenue collected €10.9 billion in corporation tax last year, according to an analysis published alongside its annual report.
Corporation tax is now the third largest source of tax, accounting for 19% of net tax receipts.
The top ten firms account for 40% of all corporation tax, while the top 100 companies make up 70%.
77% of companies paying corporation tax are foreign multinationals. 7% are Irish multinationals while 16% are domestic Irish companies.
In 2018, the most recent year for which this information is available, a total of €182.7bn in taxable profits was recorded by these companies.
90% of the companies were concentrated in five sectors: manufacturing, finance & insurance, administrative & support services, information & communications and wholesale & retail.
According to Revenue's analysis, foreign multinationals make up 27% of employment and 44% of employment taxes. This indicates the higher level of salaries on offer at many multinationals.
However, the research also reveals two recently introduced tax breaks for companies are not extensively used.
The Research and Development Tax Credit was used by 1,303 companies in 2018, 202 fewer than the previous year. The cost to the Exchequer of the credit also declined from €152m in 2017 to €109m in 2018.
There were less than ten claims in 2018 made under the 'Knowledge Development Box.' This was introduced in 2015 to encourage companies to develop new intellectual property.
It attracted a lower corporation tax of 6.25% on the profits made from any new products or services.
The number of companies claiming under this was just 12 in 2016 and 13 in 2017. It cost the Exchequer €9m in 2018.


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Santa Clara, CA — June 17, 2003 — Nearly three-quarters of the companies in a new survey are still using manual techniques to locate and track their physical assets, and 100 percent of the companies polled said that their asset management data is inaccurate due to manual processes.
The survey, conducted by WhereNet, a provider of wireless location and communications solutions for managing mobile resources, encompassed some 50 operations managers, engineers and information technology executives across a variety of industries, and it revealed several shortcomings of current asset management techniques, the associated costs of those techniques and a "wish list" for solutions to manage critical supply chain assets.
More than 70 percent of the survey respondents indicated that their companies still use manual labor — either through physical searches or barcode scanning — to locate and track inventory or high-value assets, and all the respondents indicated that their asset management data is inaccurate because of this manual process. In addition, 64 percent of the respondents reported that their companies are forced to conduct manual searches at least once a day to locate assets or inventory.
"These survey results further demonstrate the need for total asset visibility within end-user environments," said Michael Liard, a senior analyst with Venture Development Corp. "Enterprises of all sizes are challenged with the 'black hole' syndrome in their daily operations; if they had real-time data about the location and status of all their assets, their overall operation would be, by orders of magnitude, much more efficient."
Liard said that while passive radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has made strides in providing improved location information, most enterprise systems and end users still don't have access to real-time data about their high-value mobile assets. "Companies are increasingly requiring wireless, constant connectivity solutions ... that drive new applications to transform their business," Liard said.
The survey highlighted a host of issues with current asset management methods, including significant labor costs and expenses incurred due to a lack of real-time information about inventory and assets in the supply chain.
One hundred percent of respondents admitted that their data capture information is inaccurate due to human input error, improper scans or missed scans. In addition, all the respondents reported that the latency associated with current inventory systems results in the incorrect location of inventory, often because by the time the asset or inventory is located, scanned and downloaded into an inventory management or enterprise system, its "original" status has changed.
In other results, 64 percent of respondents reported that operations personnel perform at least one search per day for inventory or assets, with 27 percent reporting more than 10 searches per day, and 47 percent of respondents indicated that each search to locate an item can take up to one hour to complete.
These manual searches can become costly: 33 percent of respondents spend more than $50,000 annually in labor alone trying to locate lost assets.
Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the survey respondents agreed that the ideal asset/inventory tracking system would enable their company to have real-time visibility of all critical assets/inventory in yards, distribution centers, ports, intermodal facilities and other locations.
These respondents believe such a system would help them to reduce the amount of inventory in the supply chain, thereby decreasing losses due to overstocking, and also to trim labor costs associated with managing inventory, transportation assets and manual inventory audits.
Overall, the results suggest that operations and IT managers and executives believe they could significantly streamline their operations if they had real-time connectivity to the assets that they are tasked with managing on a daily basis, but latency and human input error are causing current data collection processes and systems to be bottlenecks for enterprises trying to reduce inventory, increase throughput and optimize their supply chains.
"The survey findings echo the feedback that we receive from the field every day: enterprises are looking for solutions to better manage their resources and to cut operational costs, reduce inventory and automate manual processes," said Matt Armanino, vice president of business development for WhereNet. "From distribution centers to intermodal facilities to automotive factories, workers and information systems are fundamentally disconnected from the mobile assets that they are trying to manage."
Consultancy Accenture recently released the results of a study suggesting that manufacturers and retailers will begin broadly adopting RFID and related technologies to tag and track inventory and equipment by 2005, potentially saving billions of dollars each year. See the June 16, 2003, iSourceonline story "Broader RFID Adoption Seen by 2005."
For more information on the use of RFID solutions in the supply chain, see "Needle in a Supply Chain Haystack," the Net Best Thing column in the January 2002 issue of iSource Business.


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Visit Belfast picked up a top industry award, beating London & Partners and The Hague Convention Bureau and Rotterdam Partners, in the hotly-contested ‘Destination Marketing Team of the Year’ category (was ‘award’) at the Conference & Incentive Travel Awards in London, 19 September 2014.
In recognition of Visit Belfast’s highly-successful conference sales strategy, the team was widely praised for its commitment and consistent hard work in delivering significant returns for the city within this highly-competitive arena.
The annual awards – judged by an international panel of industry experts – celebrate the very finest events taking place across the globe, and recognise the dynamism, best practice and event planning behind an array of global events and are widely watched by those within the industry.
The judging panel recognised that more than £1bn has been invested in Belfast over the last decade and is now one of the fastest growing meetings and conference destinations in the UK – an achievement that wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless work of Visit Belfast.
This is the latest in a series of accolades received by Visit Belfast, which have included the ‘Best UK Conference and Incentive City Destination’ at last year’s C&IT awards and the Marketing Team of the Year Award at the Meetings & Incentive Travel (MIMA) Awards.
Visit Belfast Chief Executive, Gerry Lennon, said:
“These awards are important as they not only put Belfast centre stage but position the city front of mind amongst industry leaders and key decision-makers looking for their next conference destination.
“Visit Belfast continuously works closely with the public and private sectors to bring together the venues, the hotels, transport providers and event services that are required to win and deliver world class conference events for Belfast. With support from Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, this award is testament to successful partnerships.”
Rachael McGuickin, Director of Business Tourism at Visit Belfast, added:
“I’m thrilled that the hard work and efforts of Team Belfast to promote Belfast as a destination of choice has been recognised by such an influential panel of industry leaders.
“Last year was our most successful year for conference sales and with the exciting expansion now underway at the Belfast Waterfront Hall, this is just the beginning of our ambitious plans to treble the number of conference visitors to the city by 2020.”
Visit Belfast is the destination marketing and visitor-servicing organisation for the Belfast City Region. Its main funders are Belfast City Council, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, its 570 private sector members, and key strategic partners Translink, Diageo and Value Cabs.


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WASHINGTON, D.C. [08/03/16]—Today, a group of nearly 40 Democratic Senators—led by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), and U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)—called on one of the nation’s top consumer advocacy agencies to quickly finalize an important proposal to limit the use of what is called “forced arbitration” in contracts that Americans sign when they need to take out an auto loan, sign up for a checking account, or pay for college.
Forced arbitration clauses are agreements that large corporations often slip into the fine print of contracts that Americans sign every day. And they have big consequences. By restricting access to the court system, these clauses prevent consumers who have been wronged from seeking meaningful legal recourse.
Over the past year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been working on a new rule to limit forced arbitration in financial services contracts—things like credit cards, checking accounts, payday loans, and private student loans. And today, the broad group of Senators threw their support behind the proposed rule and called for it to be finalized as quickly as possible.
“Every day, Americans across the country are forced to sign away their constitutional right to access the courts as a condition of purchasing common products and services like credit cards, checking accounts, and private student loans,” wrote the Senators in their letter to the head of the CFPB. “To restore Americans’ access to justice and hold financial institutions accountable, we strongly support the CFPB’s proposal to preserve the ability of consumers to band together in class actions when seeking relief through the civil justice system.”
The letter was also signed by Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Tom Udall (D-N. Mex.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N. Dak.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Martin Heinrich (D-N. Mex.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
Sen. Franken is one of the strongest advocates in the fight against the practice of forced arbitration and has worked with the CFPB on this proposal for a long time. He has comprehensive legislation with Sen. Leahy, called the Arbitration Fairness Act, would restore the rights of consumers, workers, and small businesses to seek justice through the courts. Sen. Franken and other Democratic Senators also pressed federal regulators to ban forced arbitration in nursing home agreements, for-profit college agreements, and most recently, Sens. Franken and Blumenthal introduced a bill to end forced arbitration in cable, television, and phone contracts.
You can view a copy of today’s full letter by clicking here or reading below.
August 3, 2016
The Honorable Richard Cordray
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
1700 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20552
Dear Director Cordray:
We write to commend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for its proposed rule to limit the use of mandatory, pre-dispute (“forced”) arbitration clauses in consumer financial product and service contracts. Every day, Americans across the country are forced to sign away their constitutional right to access the courts as a condition of purchasing common products and services like credit cards, checking accounts, and private student loans. To restore Americans’ access to justice and hold financial institutions accountable, we strongly support the CFPB’s proposal to preserve the ability of consumers to band together in class actions when seeking relief through the civil justice system.
In recent decades, companies from a broad range of industries have increasingly employed forced arbitration clauses in their service and product contracts. These clauses require a consumer to submit any claim that may arise against a company to binding arbitration – a privatized justice system that studies show consistently produces results that favor large corporations and offers no meaningful appeals process. These contract provisions also frequently include a class action waiver, meaning that consumers are unable to band together through collective action to address widespread wrongdoings by powerful corporations. Depending on the claim, class action waivers can prevent consumers from seeking recourse altogether, because the claims are so small that consumers cannot afford to pursue them individually. As a result, consumers are left without redress, and companies are unaccountable for their unscrupulous behavior.
In the context of consumer financial products and services, arbitration clauses are included in contracts for loans, such as auto loans, credit cards, or private student loans, prepaid cards, checking and savings accounts, credit reports, debt collection, debt management and relief services, check cashing, and payment processing—essential services that American families rely on every day. Armed with these clauses, banks and financial companies are able to prevent consumers from raising disputes in court individually or as a class, which might otherwise deter practices that harm consumers.
Recognizing the urgent need to address these troubling practices, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) in 2010 to improve accountability, strengthen the financial system, and establish the CFPB. Dodd-Frank included several restrictions on the use of forced arbitration, including a mandate for the CFPB to take action on arbitration. Under Section 1028 of Dodd-Frank, Congress specifically directed the CFPB to study the use of forced arbitration in connection with the offering of consumer financial products and services, and authorized it to “prohibit or impose conditions or limitations on the use of” such agreements based on the study results. Section 1028 directed the CFPB to promulgate regulations restricting forced arbitration clauses “if the Bureau finds that such a prohibition or imposition of conditions or limitations is in the public interest and for the protection of consumers,” thereby acknowledging the potential for forced arbitration to insulate financial institutions from accountability and harm consumers. Indeed, the Dodd-Frank committee report language on Section 1028 shows that Congress was concerned about consumer harm resulting from forced arbitration: “The Committee is concerned that consumers have little leverage to bargain over arbitration procedures when they sign a contract for a consumer financial product or service.” Dodd-Frank also included authority for the SEC to conduct rulemaking prohibiting the use of forced arbitration between customers and broker-dealers or investment advisers and banned forced arbitration in mortgage loans in response to the housing crisis and widespread claims of misconduct.
In fulfilling its Section 1028 mandate, in 2012, the CFPB initiated research into the effects of forced arbitration that lasted nearly four years and ultimately resulted in a comprehensive 728-page study. Importantly, the CFPB engaged with key industry and consumer stakeholders and other interested parties throughout this process, issuing a comprehensive request for information in the early stages of the study process seeking feedback on scope, methods, and data sources. The CFPB published preliminary results in December 2013, identifying nine additional work streams for inclusion in the report and seeking additional public feedback. The CFPB also solicited public feedback on a consumer survey in June 2013 and May 2014, and held roundtable discussions with industry and consumer representatives after releasing its final arbitration study in March 2015. Furthermore, in October 2015, the CFPB convened a Small Business Review Panel with the Small Business Administration and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget for additional small business and trade industry feedback.
We commend the CFPB for its comprehensive study and for carefully considering extensive public input before issuing its final proposal. The agency’s notice of proposed rulemaking concludes that regulations restricting or prohibiting the use of forced arbitration serve the public interest, provide necessary protection for consumers, and are consistent with the findings in its study. We wholeheartedly agree, and we offer our strong support for the CFPB’s proposal that rightfully recognizes the expansive harms of forced arbitration, prohibits the unfair use of class action waivers, and requires greater transparency concerning the arbitration of individual claims.
I. Forced Arbitration Favors Financial Institutions at the Expense of Consumers
The CFPB’s multi-year process found that forced arbitration clauses are ubiquitous in consumer financial service contracts, impacting tens of millions of consumers. The study’s findings demonstrate that forced arbitration favors companies and provides no meaningful appeals process for consumers who do not agree with the outcome. For example, of the examined cases of forced arbitration in which consumers had affirmative claims, consumers were very rarely able to obtain affirmative relief. In contrast, of the examined cases in which companies made affirmative claims or counterclaims, companies obtained relief in the vast majority of the disputes. And for the consumers who did recover an award in their affirmative claims, the CFPB found that they won far less than they had claimed, while the companies that obtained relief recovered nearly the entirety of their claim.
Despite this obvious disparity, consumers can rarely appeal forced arbitration decisions if they feel the arbitrator got it wrong. From 2010 to 2012, the CFPB found evidence of only four consumer appeals, and no company appeals. Finally, the CFPB also found that very few arbitrators arbitrate the majority of claims, which suggests that companies using the arbitration process seek out repeat arbitrators who may have a strong financial incentive to rule in favor of the company that repeatedly hires them.
Despite claims suggesting otherwise, the CFPB also found that there is no evidence that forced arbitration lowers costs for consumers or limits the availability of consumer credit. Further, arbitration clauses are often opaque to consumers, which results in a consumer not becoming aware of their existence until a dispute arises. The CFPB’s study showed that three out of four consumers do not know if they are subject to a forced arbitration clause, and very few consumers factor arbitration clauses into their financial decisions.
II. Arbitration Clauses Frequently Prevent Consumers From Seeking to Vindicate Their Rights At All
The CFPB’s study and proposal underscore the importance of class actions as a powerful tool to help consumers effectively vindicate their rights by returning billions of dollars to millions of consumers, in addition to achieving important non-monetary relief in the form of changes to harmful business practices. Because the majority of individual claims against consumer financial services companies are worth only small amounts of money, as Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals once put it, “the realistic alternative to a class action is not 17 million individual suits, but zero individual suits, as only a lunatic or a fanatic sues for $30.” The CFPB’s data confirms this: although millions of financial consumers are covered by forced arbitration clauses and class action waivers, the CFPB found that only a few hundred consumers file arbitration claims each year and that very few file individual claims in court, particularly when compared to the 32 million consumers who benefit from class actions each year.
The CFPB’s proposal recognizes that class action waivers frequently suppress consumers’ claims entirely and prevent the effective enforcement of substantive federal and state laws aimed at protecting consumers – perhaps uniquely more so in the financial services context than any other area of the law, since consumers’ claims in the financial services context are frequently for low-dollar amounts. The proposal also rightfully acknowledges the limitations of the CFPB’s mandate, which requires that any proposal be directly tied to the study results. Because the CFPB’s study demonstrates that class actions are the most effective and often the only tool available for consumers to seek justice in this context, the proposal smartly preserves the ability of consumers to band together when seeking relief through the civil justice system by prohibiting class action waivers in consumer financial product and services contracts.
Finally, while the proposal does not prohibit companies from forcing consumers to arbitrate individual cases, we strongly support the CFPB’s efforts to require companies to report certain information about individual arbitrations and the CFPB’s proposal to provide access to that information online. The collection and examination of this information will hopefully encourage more consumer-friendly behavior and accountability from the companies who frequently utilize this process.
As the CFPB has demonstrated with its comprehensive study, forced arbitration shields corporations from accountability for abusive, anti-consumer practices, which only encourages unscrupulous business practices by allowing violations of the law to go unchecked. This comes at the expense of consumers, small businesses, and—just as importantly—law abiding businesses. Recognizing this, the CFPB has proposed a narrowly-tailored but important rule to restore access to our civil justice system and promote transparency within the forced arbitration system. We, the undersigned, strongly support the CFPB’s proposal and urge the Bureau to move forward quickly to finalize this proposed rule to protect American consumers.


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Battlefield V Gets Launch Trailer
Ahead of its release on November 20, EA and DICE have released a launch trailer for Battlefield V.
You can view the trailer below:
Battlefield V – Official Launch Trailer
Set to come out for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, Battlefield V will continue on from Battlefield 1 by focusing on World War II.
In this release, there will be a focus on the scarcity of resources, party-based features and mechanics, and increased realism. New to this release are the modes “Tides of War”, “Firestorm”, “Combined Arms,” and “Grand Operations,” and the game can support up to 64 players.
Get a new look at the gameplay of DotEmu, Lizardcube, and Guard Crush Games’ Streets of Rage 4, courtesy of IGN
Get a firsthand look at the many characters players will come across in NIS America’s Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories with the latest trailer for the game


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Industries we serve
Avantor works with ambitious clients in a broad range of industries, using deep knowledge and a collaborative approach to create and deliver innovative products and solutions across them all.
Opportunities and challenges in cell and gene therapy development
Q&A interview with Ger Brophy, Avantor’s Executive Vice President, Biopharma Production
Avantor serves our global customers with a proven portfolio of trusted, quality brands, as well as products from thousands of other manufacturers.
Processing times can be reduced and yields increased by utilizing new hydrophobic interaction chromatography tools.
A global pharmaceutical company sought new ways to help senior scientists focus more time and attention on innovation and strategic drug project work.
A medical device OEM needed a fast cure silicone adhesive to boost throughout to maximize efficiencies.
News & events
Learn how we support and enable the industries we serve.
Avantor® Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering and Concurrent Offering of Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock
Avantor, Inc., announced today that it has priced the initial public offering of 207,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $14.00 per share...
Avantor, Inc., announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) relating to the proposed initial public offering (“IPO”) and listing of Avantor’s common stock...
Avantor today announced it will highlight its NuSil brand biocompatible silicone adhesives and other technologies at MD&M West 2019, February 5-7 in Anaheim, Calif...
Avantor to Feature Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical Capabilities, New Brand Presence at CPhI India
Avantor will showcase its broad portfolio of products and solutions to address pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical needs at all stages of the production process at CPhI India 2018, December 12-14 at the India Expo Centre in Greater Noida, Delhi NCR...


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TVS Motor Company gains earnings upto Rs 1434 cr in Q1 FY 20-21
30 July, 2020 | newsx bureau
From the second week of May 2020, TVS Motor Company commenced operations classified across all of its factories in Hosur, Mysuru and Nalagarh. Throughout the quarter, both production and sales were...
TVS Motor Company resumed its operations from the second week of May 2020 in a graded manner across all its factories in Hosur, Mysuru, and Nalagarh. This quarter is not a representative quarter due to COVID-19 related shut down for major part of the quarter.
Both production and sales were severely impacted during the quarter and therefore reflect what an unprecedented situation it was. The market is now open barring selective local lockdowns. We are witnessing a positive uptake in both domestic retails as well as international markets. Several measures taken by the company helped it to overcome supply chain disruptions and stabilize operations by the end of June.
TVS Motor Company’s overall two-wheeler sales including exports was 2.55 lakh units during quarter ended June 2020 as against sales of 8.84 lakh units reported in the quarter ended June 2019. Motorcycles registered sales of 1.19 lakh units in the quarter ended June 2020 as against sales of 4.17 lakh units registered in the quarter ended June 2019. Scooter sales of the company for the quarter registered sales of 0.82 lakh units as against sales of 2.95 lakh units in the quarter ended June 2019.
Also Read: Covid-19 impact on auto-industry: Maruti Suzuki reports net loss of Rs 249 crore in Q1 FY21
Also Read: Maruti Suzuki to recall 1.3 lakh units of WagonR, Baleno
The total export of the company registered sales of 0.81 lakh units during the quarter ended June 2020 as against sales of 2.09 lakh units in the quarter ended June 2019.
Total three-wheelers registered sales of 0.12 lakh units in the quarter ended June 2020 as against sales of 0.40 lakh units in the quarter ended June 2019.
TVS Motor Company reported revenue of Rs 1434.3 crores in the first quarter of 2020-21 as against the total revenue of Rs 4469.8 crores in the quarter ended June 2019.
The company has reported a loss of Rs 139.1 crores for the quarter ended June 2020 as against profit after tax of Rs 142.3 crores reported for the quarter ended June 2019.
Also Read: In a first, Amazon to offer automobile insurance in India


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Refaeli began her modeling career before the age of one. By the age of fifteen she was featured in campaigns for the fashion brands Castro and Pilpel, also starring in a commercial for Milki.
Refaeli won the title "Model of The Year" in a beauty contest in 2000 and 2001. She was also chosen to be the home model of Renuar fashion network and appeared in their summer 2002 and winter 2003 catalogues.
She was cast for fashion production abroad, among them Dim, and appeared in the French ELLE magazine. She is the first Israeli model to be featured in Sports Illustrated magazine; the same picture was later published on the cover of Maxim.
She appeared on the cover of the March 2006 issue of GQ Italy. She was in the March 2007 issue of Sports Illustrated in a swimsuit and posed with the band Aerosmith as well.
Bar appeared in a September 2007 Paris-Match issue where she was interviewed by reporter Caroline Mangez. The six-page article had many pictures and an interview about Bar's life in Israel, her family and her work.
She also appeared on the cover of Tatler magazine for the October 2007 issue. Refaeli will star in an English language film named Session directed by Israeli director Haim Buzaglo.


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ILUSTRASI. Toyota Motor plans an additional domestic factory line production suspension due to semiconductor shortages. Sumber foto : toyota-ep.co.jp
Sumber: Reuters | Editor: Anastasia Lilin Yuliantina
KONTAN.CO.ID - Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it plans an additional domestic factory line production suspension in June and July due to semiconductor shortages and a Covid-19 outbreak at one of its suppliers.
Thursday's announcement is the third time the world's largest automaker by sales has adjusted its June production plans, which are down about 12% from its original plan.
Hanya Rp 5.000 untuk membaca artikel ini.BELI SEKARANG


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BEGIN ARTICLE PREVIEW:
According to Cisco’s forecast, there will be 850 ZB of data generated by mobile users and IoT devices by 2021. With a surge in data, challenges like latency will emerge. And, if one has to derive intelligence from algorithms in real-time, the traditional systems cannot be trusted for long. Thanks to the efforts of top companies to place supercomputers in the pockets, edge computing systems have garnered significant attention. Over the past couple of years chipmakers have been bullish on developing integrated solutions for edge cases.
As we approach an era of IoT, 5G and portable medical devices, it is crucial to facilitate developers to quickly develop and deploy edge applications.
Companies like Huawei too have been explicit about their AI ambitions. Last year they launched their AI SoC, Ascend 310, which powers Huawei’s developer AI toolkit among other products. The Atlas 200 Developer Kit is a developer board that uses the Atlas 200 AI accelerator module. This developer kit allows developers to leverage the Atlas 200 AI accelerator module easily. For developers looking into R&D related to smart cities, drones and robotics, Atlas 200 DK can come in handy. What’s In The Box
The Atlas 200 DK developer kit is a high-performance AI …
END ARTICLE PREVIEW


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Despite its powerful hardware, the R7500 doesn't have the performance and features to justify its premium price tag.
Promise Pegasus R4 marks the end of an era where Thunderbolt was Mac-exclusive.
The Pegasus R4 would be a very good investment for those who have a Thunderbolt-enabled computer, be it Windows PC or Mac.
The major toy retailer has listed Microsoft's system as arriving towards the end of November.
We learn a little more about the specs inside the security-conscious smartphone unveiled this past February at Mobile World Congress.
Promise announces Pegasus2 and SANLink2 storage systems that are based on the new Thunderbolt 2 standard to offer top capacities and unprecedented performance for both professional and business users.
The Tegra 4i chip, with 60 GPU cores versus 72 in Tegra 4, will be targeted at smartphones.
CNET editor Dong Ngo rounds up the top five Thunderbolt-based desktop external storage devices on the market.
CNET editor Dong Ngo picks five external hard drives for serious and professional users.
According to reports, the Korea Customs Service has discovered a piracy ring thought to have illegally copied millions of dollars worth of Nintendo games and sold them online.


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AI algorithm built into CCTV cameras in all stores.
Converts human hand, body and facial movements into 2D and 3D images.
Uses an application to alert the store owner right away.
A Japanese telecom company has partnered with a startup to build an AI that can identify shoplifters in any store. This AI is called ‘AI guardman’ that is in-built into any CCTV camera in the store.
Utilising AI in the world of surveillance is becoming more and more popular with companies tapping into it globally. There have already been a few projects around the world with one of them being spotting violence in a crowd of people. This could help better security in crowded events like concerts and sports.
How this works?
The working of this technology is rather fascinating. The AI utilises a machine learning concept called ‘open pose’ which estimates the pose of a person in real time. What is basically does is, it plots the person’s body, hands and facial points on 2D and 3D images. Once this has been done, it looks for any suspicious movements like if the person is nervous and looking around if anybody is watching and also tracking their hand movements to look for movements like hiding the objects or displacing them. It even monitors the shop as a whole, looking for missing items which have not been billed. This algorithm has had an amazing response within the machine learning community.
There are several predefined poses for suspicious behaviours. When the AI detects this, it instantly sends out an alarm to the shopkeeper via a mobile application. The results of the initial trials have been excellent and there has even been a decrease in shoplifting over time by about 40%!
So let’s Summarise:
With the use of AI in the security and surveillance field, it definitely makes the world a safer place – not just in crowded places or in shops but also on the street. It can even help identify more dangerous threats like kidnappings, ATM fraud, bank robberies and accidents.
It just makes us realise how quickly we are stepping into the world of AI.


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Ferrari is giving the 812 Superfast a very special send-off.
Ferrari hasn't publically announced it, but we've known for a while the 812 Superfast will be getting a special send-off with a new, more hardcore variant evoking the spirit of the F12 tdf before it. Last month, a private video hosted by Ferrari's chief marketing officer, Enrico Galliera, sent to Ferrari customers leaked announcing its new track toy will be called the "812 Versione Speciale," which is Italian for "812 Special Version".
This will be the first time Ferrari has used the Speciale moniker since the 458 Speciale launched in 2014. Now, a photo of the 812 Versione Speciale has leaked online via Instagram page Automobiliardent, giving us our first look at the car uncamouflaged.
As you would expect from a track-focused version of the 812 Superfast, the Versione Speciale is showing off some aggressive aero. Compared to the 812 Superfast, the rear glass has been replaced with a vented roof and the hood features a massive intake. We only get to see the car from above in the blurry photo, but spy shots of prototypes have shown the track-focused 812 will also be fitted with a larger rear diffuser and redesigned bumpers
Power will be sourced from the same 6.5-liter, naturally aspirated V12 as the 812 Superfast. In the 812 Superfast, this unit produces 788 horsepower and 529 lb-ft, but the Versione Speciale will reportedly have around 880 hp to play with.
This will mark the end of an era because the Versione Speciale will be the last Ferrari to be powered by a naturally-aspirated V12 before the Italian automaker expands its electrified lineup with a new hybrid supercar slotting below the SF90 Stradale. Like the F12 tdf, production of the 812 Versione Speciale will be limited.
Allegedly, 999 coupe versions of the track-focused 812 will roll off the production alongside 499 open-top Apertas. Pricing remains unknown, but it will be more expensive than the standard 812 Superfast, which starts at $335,000 for the coupe and $363,730 for the GTS convertible. The 812 Versione Speciale is expected to debut in April, but Ferrari will hopefully release an official teaser image in higher quality before then to whet our appetite.


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Growth stocks are falling out of favor with investors in 2022. Interest rates are rising quickly, a trend that makes the present value of future cash flows worth less.
Despite how the market feels about growth stocks, Apple (AAPL -3.86%), Roblox (RBLX -8.98%), and Airbnb (ABNB -5.88%) are operating excellent businesses that seem unstoppable. Their stocks are already trading at discounts after the sell-off. Investors should consider adding these three growth stocks if the market crash gains further momentum. Here’s why.
Apple has decades of proven innovation
Apple’s business is centered around a unique capability to deliver innovative consumer technology products that drive billions in sales — starting with the Mac computer, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and more. What’s important for investors is that it has repeatedly proven that it can innovate. That makes it likely it can sustain robust revenue and profitability for the long term.
From 2019 to 2021, Apple’s sales bounced from $260 billion to $366 billion while growing earnings per share from $2.97 to $5.61. Apple is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 22 and a price-to-free-cash-flow (P/FCF) multiple of 21.
Roblox is a pioneer of the metaverse
Roblox operates a platform where players can virtually interact with each other and the environment — in other words, a metaverse. It has grown to boast 53.1 million monthly active users as of April, a 23% increase over the prior year. It’s free to join and use, for the most part. Roblox makes money by selling Robux, an in-game currency required for premium items.
Roblox has chosen to outsource those creations, a business model that has helped it deliver robust cash flows for the last two years. Roblox thrived at the pandemic’s onset, when millions of kids — its most popular cohort — were spending more time at home. Economic reopening is creating headwinds for Roblox, which, in addition to the growth stock sell-off, has caused its stock to crater. Selling at a P/FCF multiple of 31, it’s nearly the cheapest it’s ever been.
Airbnb offers travelers more options
Like Roblox, Airbnb runs an asset-light business model that has been helpful to its ability to generate free cash flow. Instead of building, owning, and operating the listings on its platform, Airbnb induces others to list rentals. Airbnb takes a percentage of the booking value of each transaction on its website.
Additionally, by letting hosts list properties on the platform, Airbnb sources a unique set of properties unavailable from traditional hotels. This means that on Airbnb, travelers can book a room inside an apartment or an entire home, depending on their needs for the particular stay. Revenue exploded by 77% for Airbnb in 2021, highlighting that it is gaining favor with travelers.
Also like Roblox, Airbnb is trading near its lowest P/FCF multiple at 25.
Robust growth at an excellent price
Each of the three stocks mentioned above has delivered excellent growth, indicating continued expansion in future years. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective as a shareholder or potential investor, the growth stock sell-off has these businesses trading at substantial discounts to where they were only months ago.
They could become even better values if a further crash pushes prices still lower. Investors should put Apple, Roblox, and Airbnb on their watch lists and consider adding them to their portfolios in the event of a continued market slide.


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2019 Ford Ranger Raptor Specs - Ford ranger raptor (2019) - pictures, information & specs, Ford ranger raptor. the first-ever ford ranger raptor, ford's latest off-road, performance pick-up truck, blasted out from behind its camouflage during a reveal event in thailand. the ultimate ranger is purposefully designed, built and tested to set a benchmark as the only factory-built performance truck across asia pacific.. 2019 ford ranger raptor specs | ford trend, 2019 ford ranger raptor specs. 2019 ford ranger raptor specs welcome to our web fordtrend.com here we provide various information about the latest ford cars such as: review, redesign, specification, rumor, concept, interior, exterior, price, release date and pictures.we hope that the information we provide can help you and make our website become one of your sources in finding the latest car. 2019 ford ranger raptor info, specs, release date, wiki, The 2019 ford ranger raptor is an extreme off-road performance variant of the 2019 ford ranger mid-size pickup truck. “we are so excited and proud to unleash this vehicle to the public, driving it really makes you feel like a hero,” said jamal hameedi, chief engineer, ford performance. “the ford performance team is excited to extend the raptor name from our flagship off-road performance. First 2019 ford ranger raptor! , 2019 ford ranger raptor (official) the wait is finally over. here are the first official images and specifications for the first ever 2019 ford ranger raptor as it makes its world debut in bangkok. Ford ranger 2019 raptor specs | release date, price, Get the latest information forford ranger 2019 raptor specs 2019 2020 2021 ford ranger 2019 raptor specs, price and release date ford ranger 2019 raptor specs specs redesign changes. 2019 ford ranger specs, release date, price - ford, At the 2017 north american international auto show, ford announced it would be returning to the north-american mid-size pickup segment with a ranger. a year on, the 2019 ford ranger is stepping.
Ford ranger raptor (2019) pictures, information & specs → 2019 ford ranger raptor specs ford trend → 2019 ford ranger raptor info, specs, release date, wiki → First ever 2019 ford ranger raptor! everything there is to → Ford ranger 2019 raptor specs release date, price → 2019 ford ranger specs, release date, price new ford →


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Yotta Infrastructure has partnered with Norway based data storage technology developer Piql to launch Yotta Preserve for the Indian market.
With the help of Piql’s approach of using a photosensitive film to store digital information that can survive for any length of time Yotta Preserve aims to address the issues of governments departments, museums, the movie industry, banking and healthcare institutions and other sectors that practically need to preserve their information forever, the company said.
Data has been growing at an enormous rate and due to an increase in the data storage capacities, the long-term storage capabilities are still not prevalent.
Entities still need to make multiple copies of their data, and the life of data storage devices is limited. Piql’s film-based preservation technology has been tested to last for centuries with guaranteed future accessibility.
This means that no matter what technology is available in the future, all preserved films will be restored in authentic form and quality, the company said.
This collaboration will give organisations in India end-to-end data preservation and archival service from Yotta.
Underlining the benefits of Yotta Preserve the company pointed that in Yotta Preserve the data archived/stored is unalterable, secure and there is no data loss and the longevity of the storage is infinite.
This is the only kind of data storage service that is offline, digital, and migration-free and also uses photosensitive film piqlFilm to store data. Thus, the data is stored in physical mode and additionally is searchable just like a digital storage medium.
“This is another innovative service that we are delighted to introduce in our growing portfolio. Different Industries require to archive data for future reference,” said Sunil Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Yotta Infrastructure.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Yotta and have Piql’s technology and services available through such a well-known and trusted brand portfolio.
One of the highlights of this service is that one can also archive valuable information at the Arctic World Archive (AWA) in Svalbard. It is a declared demilitarized zone by 42 nations and one of the safest places on earth.
AWA is home to manuscripts from the Vatican Library, political histories, masterpieces from different eras (including Rembrandt and Munch), scientific breakthroughs and contemporary cultural treasures,” said Rune Bjerkestrand, Managing Director, Piql.