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Germany will invest an additional 65 billion euros (£56 billion) in a new round of measures aimed at easing the sting of inflation and high energy prices for consumers, the country’s governing coalition has announced.
Among the measures is an extra one-off payment for more consumers to help cover energy costs, a planned price cap on the basic amount of energy consumption for families and individuals, and a successor to the country’s popular “9-euro ticket” for nationwide public transport.
At a news conference with leaders from the Greens and the pro-business FDP, the two coalition partners of his centre-left Social Democrats, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “Germany stands together in a difficult time. As a country, we will get through this difficult time.”
He said he is “very aware” that many Germans are struggling to cope with rising prices and the government is prepared to help. “We take these concerns very, very seriously,” he added.
To keep energy costs lower for individuals and families, the government announced a “price brake” on energy prices, saying it plans to offer a to-be-determined basic amount of energy to all at a lower rate.
The government will also develop a successor to its “9-euro ticket”, a nationwide ticket allowing unlimited travel on local and regional public transport.
The 9-euro (£7.80) per month ticket was announced for three months at the beginning of June as part of a government programme intended to help combat high inflation and fuel prices.
Although officials did not announce the new monthly price for this ticket going forward, the agreement released by the coalition pointed to suggestions of 49 euros (£42) or 69 euros (£60) and said it aims to offer something in this range.
Mr Scholz’s government has faced pressure in recent weeks to indicate how it planned to follow through on its promise to help consumers shoulder the costs of inflation and higher energy prices.
In addition to rising wholesale prices for natural gas caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, German consumers will have to pay a new surcharge to prop up energy companies scrambling to find new supplies on the global market.
Mr Scholz blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Germany’s high energy prices, saying Russia “has broken its contract” and “is no longer a reliable energy supplier”.
In July, when the government first began implementing measures to head off an energy crisis, Mr Scholz promised to ease the sting on consumers, saying “you’ll never walk alone”.
In recent weeks, the government had announced other actions to aid consumers, including the one-off payment of 300 euros for workers and lowering VAT on gas from 19% to 7% until the end of March 2024.


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By Caroline Marcus
More Australian men will choose size 14 over size eight when it comes to the body shape of their ideal woman, igniting debate on what it means to be thin.
Men's magazine FHM conducted an online survey asking whether its readers found a size eight, size 12 or size 14 model most attractive.
The survey drew 60,000 responses. Four-fifths said they were more attracted to the size 12 and 14 models than the size eight model pictured.
Most votes went to the size 12 woman, with 41 per cent of respondents saying she had the body shape of their "ideal girlfriend".
The size 14 body was preferred by 39 per cent, while the size eight came a distant third with 20 per cent.
FHM editor Ben Smithurst said the findings were good news for women.
"A piddling 20 per cent of readers selected our size eight model pictured as their ideal girl physique, while the size 12 and 14 models easily outscored their skinnier rival," he said.
"Which proves one thing, ladies: crack a beer, hoe into a hamburger and we'll love you just as much."
But Julie Thomson, general manager of eating disorders and body image campaigners The Butterfly Foundation, said such surveys were far more damaging to women than they were helpful.
"It objectifies women and still perpetuates this ideal that men do look at women externally only," she said.
Flinders University body image expert Marika Tiggemann said the findings supported academic research on the topic on female body image.
"We find women want to be thinner than what men find attractive," Professor Tiggemann said. "Men's idea of what is 'thin' is larger than that of women. Unfortunately, a lot of people think being thin demonstrates being in control or being disciplined, while being fat is a sign you're weak."
The editor of women's magazine Cleo, Nedahl Stelio, said that most women did not diet for men but for other women.
"Most men I know would go for more boob over thinner thighs, but women, by nature, are competitive with other women," she said.
"And if the society and celebrity ideal is thin, that's what she's going to aspire to, just to get one up on other women."
Ms Thomson said: "There is just far too much importance placed on size when you should be looking at a whole range of other aspects.
"From our perspective as an eating disorder foundation, those sorts of surveys are an issue because they are centred around judging people based on what size they are and it is really unhealthy to judge or view people in that way."
She said that women embarked on extreme diets or developed eating disorders for a number of complex reasons, and it was oversimplistic to attribute such behaviour to a bid to appeal to the opposite sex.
"People develop eating disorders for a wide variety of reasons, including low self esteem and family history of depressive illness," Ms Thomson said.
"It is very, very complex and it is certainly not just brought about because some people desire to be thin in some sort of effort to attract men."

domain: news


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The U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the third quarter, notching its quickest pace in three years, as increases in business investment in inventories and equipment offset a moderation in consumer spending.
Gross domestic product expanded at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter also boosted by a rebound in government spending, the Commerce Department said in its second estimate on Wednesday. That was the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2014 and a pickup from the second quarter’s 3.1 percent rate.
The economy was previously reported to have grown at a 3.0 percent pace in the July-September period. It was the first time since 2014 that the economy …Read More On Newsmax


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WELLINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Latest research into New Zealand's premium ice cream industry suggests that exporters could find new buyers in valuable overseas markets including China as consumers increasingly look for tip-top quality in food.
The new research finds scope to expand ice cream exports to Australia, Asia and Britain. It suggests premium ice cream could potentially follow the global success of premium wine and honey exports, Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash said on Wednesday when releasing a report for the Food and Beverage Information Project, run by government agencies.
"Ice cream is produced in almost every region in New Zealand and there are around 48 local manufacturers," Nash said, adding the challenge is translating New Zealand's strong global position in dairy exports into a lucrative global market for ice cream and other frozen treats.
"Our first local ice cream makers started with some of the best milk and cream in the world more than 100 years ago and are still causing ripples," Nash said.
New Zealand already enjoys tariff-free access for ice cream under a number of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in the Asia-Pacific region. This includes tariff-free access to China, New Zealand's largest ice cream export market, under the New Zealand-China FTA, according to the report.
Consumers are interested in ice cream made of milk from sheep, deer, buffalo or goats. Plant-based ice cream from oat milk, coconut milk or soy milk has a growing global market. Gelato and sorbet utilize the best of New Zealand's abundant horticultural produce, he said.
"The humble hokey pokey in a cone is a Kiwi icon and an essential part of summer. But artisan producers have innovated with organic, seasonal and rich ingredients or flavors such as A2 milk, sea salt, peanut butter, hemp, and turmeric," the minister said.
The free trade deal between New Zealand and Britain agreed in principle in 2021 holds great potential for ice cream and other dairy exports, he said.
Ice cream exporters can also respond to new consumer demands arising from the global COVID-19 pandemic. There is growing interest in healthy, sustainable, low-carbon or vegan food, and premium products bought directly from supermarkets for consumption at home, according to the report.
New Zealand has quality raw ingredients and low production costs; a skilled workforce and processing industry trusted by consumers; and close proximity or open access to key markets which are set to grow further with new trade agreements, the minister said.
The report suggests ice cream producers build on existing strengths in the dairy export supply chain; target the premium market and formulate "unique Kiwi flavors"; and focus on a few developed countries where there is already high consumption of ice cream.


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JC Penney is employing a more emotional series of spots for its massive commitment to the Oscars. A year ago, JC Penney tapped Ellen DeGeneres for a humorous series of spots meant to educate consumers about its new policies and pricing model.
This year, the retailer purchased six spots related to the Oscars broadcast. One spot each aired during the pre-show and red carpet, while four ads aired during the awards show. The spots were themed around the tagline "Yours Truly, JCP."
The anthem spot shows classic American images with the text, "Dear Dreamers, Dear Go-Getters…Dear Supermen, Dear Brave Hearts ... Dear Champions, Dear Angels…Dear America, You deserve to look better. You deserve to live better. That's what we've believed for 100 years. And we will believe for 100 more." Several shorter spots carry the same theme but promote individual lines now available at JC Penney, including Levi's, Cosabella, Pearl by Georgina Chapman and Joe Fresh.
A spokeswoman for JC Penney said the campaign would be ongoing. The spots were created by The Bureau, an agency that has worked with Apple in the past and is now working solely with JC Penney. Since splitting with Saatchi & Saatchi in late 2011 the retailer has worked with a variety of agencies, including Peterson Milla Hooks, Brand Advisors and Mother.
The massive ad buy comes at a tricky time for the retailer, which has been grappling with falling sales, a highly publicized lawsuit involving Macy's and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and consumer confusion over its shifting pricing policies.
Sales have been in a free fall for the last three quarters, and its ability to attract customers interested in exclusive lines like Pearl by Georgina Chapman and Joe Fresh will be key in the coming months.
Last year, four spots showed Ms. DeGeneres going back in time to see whether befuddling return policies and pricing strategies had always been the norm. Those ads ranked among the most effective commercials to roll out during the broadcast, according to Ace Metrix. In one ad, Ms. DeGeneres attempted to return a toga in ancient Rome but was thwarted by her lack of a receipt.


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Italy Sees Russian Mob Link Through Bank of New York
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
Published: September 28, 1999
RIMINI, Italy, Sept. 24— A two-year criminal investigation has turned up the first concrete evidence that suspected organized crime operators from Russia have funneled millions of dollars through the Bank of New York, prosecutors here say.
Through an examination of bank records and telephone wire taps, investigators in this seaside town in northeastern Italy say they have uncovered two examples of illicit funds moving through a group of accounts at the Bank of New York that are under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Italians have been conducting a little-noticed investigation into Russian organized crime activity in this region of Italy. Separate investigations in the United States and Switzerland have also been trying to determine whether Russian crime operatives transferred money through the bank.
The prosecutors here say that criminal gangs were raising money in Italy through a mixture of legitimate business activities as well as extortion and tax fraud. The funds, investigators suspect, were regularly routed to Moscow and New York, where, bank records show, they were transferred to Italian bank accounts belonging to suspected organized crime operators.
''It must be assumed that part of large sums of money that have been transferred into Italian bank accounts are the proceeds from protection racketeering with regard to Russian businessmen,'' said Daniele Barberini, an investigating magistrate here, in an arrest order issued last February for the leader of the reputed Russian crime gang.
The case appears to involve small-time racketeers who supposedly demanded payments from Russian traders in Italy who exported consumer goods to Russia. Those payoffs, investigators believe, went to the Bank of New York, passing through accounts of the Benex Corporation and eventually winding up in Italian bank accounts belonging to suspected organized crime operators.
Benex and a group of related accounts at the New York bank are at the center of a Federal money laundering investigation. The Benex network of accounts was the pipeline through which at least $7.5 billion moved from Russia into the Bank of New York in the last three years, according to the bank.
So far there have been 2 arrests in Italy and international arrest warrants have been issued for 10 more individuals.
The examination uncovered three accounts in which money flowed through the Bank of New York to bank accounts in Italy. In one case, $5.5 million went from Benex to the Italian bank account of Boris Rizner, 34, a Ukrainian. An arrest warrant has been issued in Italy for Mr. Rizner, a suspected member of a local gang.
In the other instance, Vladimir Zabolotsky, another suspected Moscow gang member, had a bank account in Italy that received money from the Benex and Torfinex Corporation accounts at the Bank of New York. An international warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Neither man could be reached for comment. Bank of New York, which is cooperating with the United States authorities, said it would make no comment on the transactions.
The investigation here began in October 1997, when a Russian businessman, Pavel Markovitsev, complained to the Italian police of harassment by Russian and Ukrainian racketeers in Moscow and in Italy, Mr. Barberini said in an interview.
Mr. Markovitsev's testimony to the Italian investigators led to the arrest in last February of Yossif A. Roizis, 52, a native of Ukraine and a naturalized United States citizen whom the Italian officials consider the head of a crime gang operating in this part of Italy.
Mr. Roizis faces trial for extortion, kidnapping and racketeering. He could not be reached for comment.
The proceeds in this extortion racket, investigators said, were considerable but they could not specify an exact amount. Its activities appear to have continued from the early 1990's until 1998, when it was effectively broken by the investigation.
Mr. Markovitsev was one of thousands of small-time businessmen who began landing in towns around Rimini for a mix of beach and business after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Those small-time traders, armed with bundles of cash ranging from several hundred dollars to $60,000 to $70,000, bought up Italian consumer goods with the intention of sending them back to Russia.
The region around Rimini is dotted with small family-run companies that produce a range of goods, including shoes and hosiery, as well as home furnishings and furniture. The companies supply their products to big European name brands and also sell goods under their own label through private channels.
Many of the suppliers were known to the Russians from business deals during the final years of the Soviet Union. Their reputation for good quality at attractive prices lured Russian traders here as demand for Western goods soared in the early 90's.
At the peak of the immigration wave in the mid-1990's, Italian officials said some 60,000 to 70,000 Russians were arriving at Rimini's tiny airport each year. Today the international arrivals gate is marked in Italian and Russian. Posters around the airport advertise, in Russian, companies offering services for Russian businessmen looking for Italian wholesalers. On the tarmac, Russian-built Antonov cargo planes are often seen loading goods headed for Russia.


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Greenwood, the digital banking platform launched last year by co-founders Ryan Glover and rapper/activist Michael “Killer Mike” Render, has attracted some of finance’s biggest names.
According to a joint announcement released Thursday, the burgeoning fintech startup — named after the early 20th-century African-American business district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that received the nickname “Black Wall Street” — has raised more than $40 million in Series A funding since its website launched in October.
Killer Mike told CNN Business via email, “The challenge of the racial wealth gap can only be effectively addressed by a coalition focused on the mission of financial equity.” He continued, “Greenwood’s Series A funding round is a major step towards economic empowerment to Latino and Black individuals, families, and businesses by assembling multiple parties in finance and financial services to act in concert.”
Greenwood says it was forced to delay its expected January launch date due to excessive demand after more than 500,000 people signed up for an account before launch. Truist Bank, Bank of America (BAC), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) are among a growing list of major financial institutions invested in the company.
Glover says the timing for Greenwood, which he’s been working on since 2018, couldn’t be better, particularly in light of the cultural movement to help Black-owned businesses that erupted in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder last year.
“Now we have closer to 600,000 folks that have joined our waitlist,” he said. “That’s just truly a testament to the need in the Black and Latinx community for financial empowerment.”
Following the launch of Greenwood’s fintech platform in October, Truist Bank (TFC) claims to have been the platform’s lead investor. According to company representatives, the Atlanta-based commercial bank was the first to inquire about investing in Greenwood. Other major investors include Mastercard (MA), Visa (V), Wells Fargo (CBEAX), Soft Bank’s SB Opportunity Fund, PNC, and Banco Common.
Lightspeed Venture Partners and TTV Capital, and fellow fintech company FIS and private equity division Quality Ventures followed suit. Jesse Williams, an actor, and Alvin Kamara, a running back for the New Orleans Saints, have also joined Greenwood’s investment group.
Truist Ventures’ Vanessa Vreeland says her company believes strongly in Greenwood’s goal of financial empowerment and narrowing the racial wealth gap between White Americans and the majority of people of color.
“We are trying to solve this problem in a number of different ways, but we hadn’t seen anyone trying to solve it from this type of angle,” Vreeland told CNN. “There is a flip side to having big banks come into it. It really legitimizes these guys as serious players in the space.”
Greenwood plans to launch its online debit and spending account services in July. By the end of this year, the company expects to launch its lending and credit account programs, and its investment product offerings will debut in 2022.
Former Brightwell chief enforcement officer Lynn Cherry is one of Greenwood’s latest hires.
Glover stated that by the end of the year, the company’s current headcount of seven would have grown to 40.


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Food for Thought: What’s happening with grocery ecommerce?
Compared to other industries, the way people grocery shop has remained relatively unchanged over the decades. You walk in, grab a cart, check off the items on your list, and check out. Unlike other industries, grocery shopping is a weekly habit, and habits can be hard to break. It’s likely one of the top reasons why grocery is still fairly untouched in the ecommerce space.
The majority of consumers, 81%, have never bought groceries online, so why invest in a grocery ecommerce site? Here are a few compelling reasons:
- It’s proven to increase average order value (AOV). From March 2017 to March 2018, the AOV for delivered and fully-assorted online grocery orders was $156. For pickup orders, the AOV was $138, according to Rakuten Intelligence.
- Internet Retailer reported that online food sales grew nearly nine-times faster than total food sales in 2017 and continue to grow.
- Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods forced the hand of other grocery retailers to enter the ecommerce space.
The Continued Growth of Online Grocery Sales
According to eMarketer, experts project that online food and beverage sales will grow to $19.89 billion in the US by the end of 2019—an 18.2% growth from the year before—and will rank as the fastest-growing product category online. By 2025, they expect this number to jump to $100 billion and capture 25% of the retail grocery business. While the industry is experiencing above-average growth rates, it remains one of the least-penetrated ecommerce categories and will remain so for the next several years.
When looking at the current frontrunners in grocery ecommerce, it’s no surprise that Amazon dominates the market with a 38.2% share, followed by Walmart including Sam’s Club with 20.6%, and Costco Wholesale Corp. with 8.8% of the share. With Amazon, shoppers get the same convenient experience as they do when shopping for other products on the site. They search for the items they want, add it to their cart, select a delivery time, and checkout.
For the past few years, retailers have been acquiring food subscription and delivery newcomers. In May of 2018, Kroger purchased Home Chef for $200 million and bought a 5% stake in the UK online grocer Ocado Group PLC. In December of 2017, Target purchased delivery service Shipt for $550 million to bolster their same-day grocery delivery capabilities. To promote the service, Target offered app users free same-day delivery from November 18-26, 2019.
Download Blue Acorn iCi’s Complete Customer Experience Report to learn how to create an unforgettable, personalized customer experience.
Profile of the Online Grocery Shopper
Only 6.3% of consumers shop for groceries online regularly, and most of them buy at least some of their groceries in a physical location as well. 4% of consumers order groceries online for pickup or delivery once per week, and 11% twice per month or less.
When looking at the age ranges of online grocery shoppers, the younger the consumer, the more likely they are to try online grocery ordering. Millennials make up 38% of those that have tried online grocery ordering, Gen X makes up 29%, Baby Boomers make up 14%, and Matures make up 14%.
Compared to older generations, Millennials spend less time each week preparing and presenting food. However, the number of Millennials eating at someone else’s house is greater than older generations, implying they like to entertain. This offers an opportunity for grocery retailers to market food for entertaining purposes to younger generations.
Driving Factors for Online Grocery Shopping
Distance to Grocery Stores: Distance to grocery stores impacts online shopping habits and the availability of delivery services. According to the 2018 Internet Retailer Food Report, three in four shoppers in the US live less than five miles from the grocery store they most frequently shop. However, studies show that the penetration of online grocery delivery is similar across urban, suburban, and rural residences. It may make more sense for grocery stores to target consumers that live further from their preferred store.
Short on Time: According to a Gallup survey, online grocery shopping appeals to those that are short on time: parents with young kids and employed adults. For these consumers, convenience is the obvious driver for online grocery shopping. They can shop from their phone and schedule delivery at a time that’s convenient for them.
Why People Do Not Grocery Shop Online, Yet
The same Gallup survey asked consumers why they don’t shop online. These are their top reasons:
- 22% said, “I prefer going to the store.”
- 21% said, “I prefer seeing & selecting the products personally.”
- 12% said, “I enjoy going to the grocery store.”
- 8% said, “My grocery store doesn’t offer home delivery.”
It all boils down to the habit of shopping weekly for groceries. You have a specific store you like to shop at, products you prefer, and the ability to price compare easily.
Bridging the Convenience Gap with an Optimized Customer Experience
Convenience is at the core of why customers buy groceries online. The last thing they want is an online experience that’s as laborious and frustrating as shopping in a physical location. 75% of online grocery shoppers stick with the first online store they tried, which means retailers only have one opportunity to convert and retain a customer.
Add to Cart With a Single Click
As simple as it is to add an item to their cart in a physical grocery store, it should be even easier online with a single click of a button. Including an Add to Cart button to every item on the product listing page allows the shopper to skip the detail page and quickly choose items they already know or use regularly.
Instantly Replenish Multiple Items
Every week, consumers primarily replenish the same items they regularly consume, whether it’s their favorite snack, prepared meal, or cleaning products. A re-ordering feature allows shoppers to instantly add the items to their cart without going through the process of searching for and adding each item individually.
Bundle Products with Relevant Recommendations
Milk and eggs. Chips and salsa. Pasta and marinara sauce. These are all things that customers typically purchase together. By adding relevant product recommendations to the product detail page, or bundling those products, you make it easy for shoppers to find items that complement one another and add them all on the same page.
Inspire Weekly Meals with Content and Recipes
How many times have you stared at a blank grocery list wondering what meals to make for the week? Recipes provide shoppers with meal inspiration and an easy path to follow for their online grocery shopping. Take it one step further by adding a product list to each recipe page that can easily be added to their cart.
Add Convenience Delivery Scheduling
For the ultimate convenience factor, you need a feature that enables customers to choose the best delivery time for their schedule. Most online grocery stores provide same-day or next-day delivery or go as far as offering one-hour or two-hour delivery windows.
Grocery Retailers Invest in the Future
Merging Online and Offline Experiences with Omnichannel
Data shows that while some consumers shop for groceries online regularly, many still visit a physical store. As a result, grocery retailers like ALDI and Wegmans Food Market invested in curbside pickup, online ordering, and home delivery to appeal to consumers that seek a mix of online and offline experiences.
Autonomous Vehicles for Driverless Delivery
In August 2018, Kroger debuted its unmanned delivery service in Scottsdale, AZ in partnership with robotics company Nuro. Until the program’s end in March 2019, Koger tested the autonomous fleet of Priuses with safety drivers to intervene if needed. During the pilot program, Kroger completed over 2,000 deliveries in Scottsdale.
But is the public ready for autonomous vehicles? The Arizona Republic reported at least 21 incidents against autonomous vehicles from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo pilot program and their human safety drivers in Chandler, AZ. These incidents included waving a gun, throwing rocks, slashing a tire, forcing vehicles off the road, and standing in front of them to block their way.
Simplified Grocery List with Voice Assistant
Earlier this year, Walmart announced a partnership with Google to allow customers to order groceries via Google Assistant-enabled devices. Walmart uses the customer’s past purchases to determine the size, type, and brand of product a customer wants. For example, instead of saying, “Hey Google, add a gallon 1% Great Value milk,” they can say, “add milk” without specifying the details.
Only 4% of grocery shoppers have adopted voice assistants to add items to their grocery list, but 66% of those adopters use the tool at least weekly for grocery planning. This presents an opportunity for online grocery retailers to expand their digital tools and simplify lists for shoppers.
Blue Acorn iCi has helped several food and CPG brands take the experience online. If you’d like to take your grocery retailer online or optimize your current site, reach out to us here.
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Nothing Phone (1) will be launching next month and the hype train surrounding the device just won’t stop. While other details are yet to be confirmed about the hardware that the device is packing, Nothing has confirmed the chipset onboard. According to a report by Input, it’s now written in stone that the Nothing Phone (1) will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G+ chipset. This has also been confirmed by Carl Pei, who clarified the reason why the company chose the mid-range chipset. Previously, a Geekbench and BIS certification listing hinted that the smartphone runs on this chipset.
Nothing has claimed that the Snapdragon 778G+ chipset has been custom-tuned to bring to main features to the Phone (1) - Wireless and reverse wireless charging. The company worked in collaboration with Qualcomm to keep the chipset architecture while adding these features. So, it looks like the smartphone may not have the bells and whistles of a flagship smartphone but will bring premium features.
Co-founder Carl Pei has voiced out that he feels smartphones nowadays provide good enough performance for day-to-day tasks. He also added that flagship chipsets now have “diminishing returns”. The Nothing Phone (1) is meant to be a device that provides a balance of power efficiency, performance and price, according to the company.
The Nothing Phone (1) will launch on July 12 and is slated to be priced under Rs 40,000 in India. Since the smartphone is being manufactured in the country, we could expect a lower price tag too.
Nothing was as expected
The Nothing Phone (1) did not turn out to be the flagship-killer that everyone was expecting. While the company does say it wants to create a device that is known more for its efficiency than the flagship features, it may be just a part of the bigger picture.
The Nothing Ear (1) was an experiment to see how consumers would react to a transparent design on a product. The device is a head-turner for sure. The Phone (1) is just a stepping stone for Nothing to create its portfolio of products. Budget and mid-range devices are in higher demand in most parts of the world. And there are very few companies that are reinventing what a smartphone looks like.
So far, Nothing has been successful at generating a lot of interest in its smartphone. Through its limited-time auction, the company was even able to sell a unit for $3,064 (approximately Rs 2,42,000). The success of the product will be the larger factor which decides the fate of the future smartphones from the company.


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Hong Kong all set for record-breaking Chinese New Year
Tuesday 01 February 2011
As Hong Kong prepares to usher in the Year of the Rabbit - and enjoy the four-day holiday that accompanies Chinese New Year - the city is also preparing to welcome a record number of visitors, drawn by shopping bargains and host of festival-related attractions.
Chinese New Year 2011 runs from Thursday, February 3 to Sunday, February 6 and is a time for gathering among family and friends, eating, drinking and - Hong Kong being Hong Kong - shopping.
More than 650,000 visitors are expected in town, with the Hong Kong Tourism Board predicting a rise of 15 percent in the number of mainland Chinese tourists - traditionally the city's biggest market.
That's great news for Hong Kong's ubiquitous malls, which have seen sales around Chinese New Year skyrocket in recent years as the city promotes itself as a festive destination. According to the HKTB, retail sales around Chinese New Year have grown by 65 percent from 2005 to 2009, and now account for more than HK$275 billion (25 billion euros).
So keen is one Hong Kong mall on attracting visitors from up north that it has sent "500,000 text messages to target consumer groups in mainland China and conducted a national ad campaign through mainland websites and radio stations," according to the Wall Street Journal Asia edition.
The Hong Kong International Airport is meanwhile expecting a record 986 flights into town on Friday (beating the then-record 973 that arrived on December 17 last year) and a total of 15,508 flights to arrive over the 17 days surrounding Chinese New Year - traditionally the period that people come and go on their holidays.
And the city is pulling out all stops to entertain visitors to town, including lantern displays, a massive flower market and the city's annual New Year float parade through the Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district on Thursday and a massive fireworks display over Victoria Harbour on Friday night.
To check how Hong Kong celebrates, log on to ...
This year's promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRpEAXqjq9k&feature=channel
Highlights of last year's parade: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrqfH5prEEI&NR=1&feature=fvwp
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To fight cybercrime on the Web, security experts have tried "good cop" tactics. They've worked to teach users to spot and avoid the "phishing" sites that spread malicious software and steal bank codes. They've tried tweaking Web browsers and search engines to make scam sites more apparent. But as the dark side of the Web continues to grow and evolve, they're considering a harsher strategy: wiping crime sites off the Web altogether.
The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), a consortium of cybersecurity firms and Web businesses, is pushing a new initiative to streamline the process of permanently deleting fraud sites from the Web. Working with the registries that control and distribute domain names, the APWG is crafting a system that would accredit security organizations to act as the Web's watchdogs, identifying phishing sites. The flagged sites are then pulled from registries and so banished from the Internet, sometimes in just minutes.
But despite its good intentions, the APWG's proposed crackdown is drawing controversy. Although the group had hoped to propose its initiative to the Internet's administrative body, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is meeting this week in India, some of the Web's biggest players are nervous about what they see as a drastic measure. Shortening the time it takes to pull the plug on a site, some worry, could lead to innocent victims.
"This is the equivalent of a death penalty for a Web site," admits Fred Felman, a spokesperson for MarkMonitor, one of the brand management and security firms that would be accredited by the program. "If we remove a legitimate e-commerce business from the Web, it could lose millions in revenue that doesn't come back."
The costs of phishing to consumers and businesses have been mounting. In the year ending in August 2007, 3.6 million adults in the U.S. were successfully defrauded by phishing e-mails at a total cost of $3.2 billion, according to Gartner Research. That's a disturbing jump from the 2.3 million users who lost $2.9 billion in 2006. (See: "The Top Countries for Cybercrime").
And pulling down the sites responsible for that fraud has become increasingly complex. Since late 2006, phishers have used a technique known as "fast flux" to make the location of their scam sites a moving target. Fast flux, probably innovated by a Russian cybercriminal gang known as Rock Phish, automatically changes the physical computer hosting a site as quickly as every two minutes, says Laura Mather, the APWG's director of operations. That means Internet service providers--many of whom had developed efficient systems for disconnecting specific host computers from the Web--can't keep up with scammers, Mather says.
"This is an arms race that the phishers have created," says Mather. "We need something at the next level of sophistication to combat the tools they're using against us."
The technique the APWG is suggesting involves asking registries, which control a site's domain name--rather than its physical Internet connection--to crack down on the Web scams. The idea: As soon as a phishing site's domain name is identified by an accredited anti-phishing group, disconnect it from the directory--effectively sending it into cyberspace exile.
Brand management firms, like Mark Monitor and Internet Identity, already send rogue site addresses to registries and registrars, the middlemen who sell domain names, to have them pulled off the Web. Mark Monitor's Fred Felman says that his group targets more than 500 sites in a typical week and has never had a "false positive,"--in other words, has never mistaken a legitimate site for a phisher.
But without an official takedown system, the process of suspending a site can take hours or even days. In that time, a facile phisher can snag a hefty haul of credit card numbers.
Even so, the penalties for liquidating a legitimate site could be significant. "Who would be responsible for false positives?" asks Edmon Chung, who runs the registry for sites ending in .asia. "The devils are in the details. We want to help with this cause, but we need to take a close look at it legally."
"In the past, domain names have been treated as a utility," says Bill Semich, president of the Swedish registry for sites ending in .nu. "Suspending a phisher's domain name would have been like the power company shutting off someone's electricity because they were playing music too loudly."
Registries like .asia and .nu, which each control tens of thousands of Web sites, say they are willing to experiment with the new process, which could help cut their costs by reducing the number of fraudsters who register domain names without paying for them. Bigger domain managers, however, are more cautious.
Verisign, for instance, which administers the Web's millions of .com and .net sites, has declined to comment on the APWG initiative even though it is a member of APWG and has long supported the group's anti-phishing advocacy work. Tim Callan, a vice president for the company's security division, says that false positives have to be factored into the equation. "As long as there have been spam filters and blacklists, there have been legitimate businesses that get punished," he says.
Callan points out that Verisign is developing a toolbox of other policing tactics. For instance, the company is currently assembling a list of certified businesses to create an alert system that distinguishes between phishing sites and legitimate sites. By cooperating with the teams developing Microsoft's
In tests, 70% of users could spot a phishing site because it lacked the green marker, says Callan. That's a good start, says APWG's Mather--but not sufficient. She cites a study done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last February showing that only two out of 60 test subjects noticed a lack of security certification on a banking site. "This kind of visual indicator is a great step, but alone it's not enough," she says. "Phishers are very good at the social engineering that makes people respond even to sites that have red flags. In order to fully protect users, we need to get these sites off the Internet."
Despite the resistance, Mather isn't giving up on the APWG's proposal. She hopes to rally more support for the measure and introduce it to ICANN's governing board not this week but at its next meeting, slated for Paris in June. "We're still very excited about this at the APWG," she says. "If we can create a bulletproof system with all the right safeguards, this could have a lot of impact."


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Maruti Suzuki has commenced exports of the Baleno hatchback. The first batch dispatched from India has been unloaded at Toyohashi Port in Japan.
The Baleno is the first car from Maruti Suzuki to be exported to the parent company’s home market, Japan. The Hyundai Elite i20 and Honda Jazz rival is based on a new platform, which will also underpin the soon to be launch, Maruti Suzuki Ignis.
Suzuki will be offering the petrol version of the Baleno is Japan. The part of the engine line up will also be the new 1.0-litre Boosterjet turbocharged engine producing 110bhp, which was showcased at the Auto Expo 2016. The Baleno with the same engine set up will be launched here in mid-2016, ahead of the festive season.


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NEW YORK — Oncor Electric Delivery, owner of the largest power-line network in Texas, wants to spend more than $2 billion on batteries to solve the problem of fluctuating output from wind and solar.
Oncor has talked to Tesla Motors Inc. about using its batteries for the grid. Use of batteries to supply electricity to the grid on demand would help with intermittent wind and solar power, which only generate when the sun shines or winds blow. Texas generates the most wind power of any state.
“Texas is facing increasing demands on the power grid and we think this may be the best way to address it,” Schein said. “We need to propose a plan that provides many benefits to the grid.”
Deploying as much as 5,000 megawatts of battery storage would help reduce customer bills by cutting spending on new power plants and distribution infrastructure, according to a report today from Brattle Group Inc. Oncor, which is 80 percent owned by a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings Corp., commissioned the study.
Energy storage for the grid is expected to surge to 20.8 gigawatts in 2024 from 538.4 megawatts this year, with revenue growing to $15.6 billion annually from $675 million, according to Navigant Research.
In the next seven or eight years, the price of batteries used for storage may fall by about half, to $230 a kilowatt-hour of generating capacity, said Sofia Savvantidou, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in London.
Tesla has announced plans to build a “gigafactory” in Nevada that would produce batteries that can supply power to cars and store electricity for utilities. The company has said it plans to cut the per kilowatt-hour cost of its batteries by more than 30 percent.
Energy Future Holdings, which filed for bankruptcy with a $42 billion reorganization plan in April, is seeking a buyer for Oncor via auction. Oncor serves 10 million customers in Texas using 119,000 miles (191,000 kilometers) of power lines.
Copyright 2014 Bloomberg
Lead image: Wind farm Texas via Shutterstock


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In some markets such as the United States, news of a takeover is literally a ticket to riches for shareholders as bidders tend to offer a huge premium over the undisturbed share price to buy them out.
Not here, though. Time and time again, complaints have surfaced that when it comes to a particular type of takeover - majority shareholders buying out the remaining shareholders to take the company private - smaller shareholders are often forced to sell their shares against their will and at unattractive prices.
Take Nobel Design, for which minority shareholders got an offer of 51 cents a share, even though its books showed it had net cash per share of almost 56 cents.
That means shareholders who accepted the offer not only got less than the money sitting in the bank that was due to them - they got nothing for the inventories, receivables and other assets.
If you think "squeeze-outs", as such strong-armed tactics are known, are confined to small-capitalised firms, you might be surprised to find that they occur in large companies too.
In 2014, United Industrial Corp (UIC) sough t to buy up the rest of Singapore Land (SingLand), in which it held an 80.4 per cent stake.
UIC had offered an 11.24 per cent premium over SingLand's undisturbed price, but that still priced the offer at a 33 per cent discount to SingLand's book value. That prompted the Singapore Exchange to ask ANZ, the offer's independent financial adviser, how it had arrived at its assessment that the offer was fair and reasonable.
Furthermore, minority shareholders often get squeezed out when the stock is trading at a historically low price. Controlling shareholders also choose to buy out the remaining shares at the bottom of the business cycle, and deprive minority shareholders of any upside they might enjoy with a revival in the company's fortunes.
Worse, it seems to be very much a Singapore phenomenon. A recent paper by Associate Professors Christopher Chen and Wan Wai Yee and Assistant Professor Zhang Wei from Singapore Management University suggests squeeze-outs are far more prevalent in Singapore than in Hong Kong, which is a much bigger market in terms of the number of companies listed and total market capitalisation.
For the period 2008-14, they counted 123 squeeze-out transactions in Singapore, against 62 in Hong Kong. They also observed that premiums offered by bidders in Hong Kong were "significantly higher".
In the light of these observations, you might ask why Singapore investors are getting short-changed by comparison.
In a takeover by outside parties, a company's board is typically involved in getting the highest price from the bidder. In contrast, an offer from the controlling shareholder very often does not involve the board - to the detriment of minority shareholders.
The researchers noted that retail participation is much higher in the Hong Kong market. That carried weight with Hong Kong regulators when they were confronted with media reports "aggressively documenting squeeze-outs of family-controlled companies".
Also, takeovers here in the past tended to involve external bidders who offered decent premiums. Squeeze-outs have become a controversial feature only in recent years, as major shareholders elbowed out smaller investors following the dot.com bubble in 2001, the Sars epidemic in 2003 and the global financial crisis in 2008.
So how can the Hong Kong experience help small-time investors? The researchers observed that the main driver in providing relief there came from tweaks made by regulators to the takeover code and listing rules.
They noted that, in both Hong Kong and Singapore, a controlling shareholder can buy out the remaining shareholders in three ways - by making a general offer, via a scheme of arrangement, or by delisting the firm before making an exit offer for the rest of the shares.
However, Singapore parts company with Hong Kong when it comes to how these three mechanisms are administered.
For a general offer, in both Singapore and Hong Kong, the acquirer can proceed to compulsorily acquire the rest of the company's shares only if the 90 per cent threshold acceptance level is crossed for his offer.
A 90 per cent acceptance level would seem an impossibly tough hurdle to cross for most bidders.
However, in Singapore, there is a loophole that major shareholders can exploit to get around the hurdle - they can set up a shell company as the vehicle to do the takeover and say upfront that they will accept the offer made by this shell company.
Whatever shareholdings they or their associates own will still count towards the 90 per cent acceptance level.
Say the bidder already controls 80 per cent of the shares. All he needs before he can acquire the rest is acceptance for another 10 per cent.
In Hong Kong, however, the shareholdings of the bidder and those associated with him are specifically excluded from the count towards the 90 per cent acceptance level. Thus, using the same example, the bidder would need to get acceptance for 18 per cent of the shares to pull through. That is almost double the number of shares he would be required to get in Singapore.
Alternatively, a bidder can resort to a scheme of arrangement to buy the remaining shares. Under this arrangement, a meeting must be held in which 75 per cent of shareholders present, excluding the bidder, must vote in favour of the buyout.
However, in Hong Kong, apart from this requirement, the scheme can go through only if dissenters do not make up more than 10 per cent of the votes. That forces the bidder to offer more incentives to minimise dissenting votes.
One other mechanism that major shareholders use to buy out a company is to delist it first. This puts pressure on the minority shareholders to sell out when they make an exit offer because the shares are no longer traded on the exchange.
For a delisting, a shareholders' meeting must be held where approval for the move must be received from 75 per cent of the shareholders present and where not more than 10 per cent disagree. For major shareholders, this feat is made easier in Singapore because listing rules here do not bar them from voting on the move.
In Hong Kong, the rules have been tightened to ensure that a company can be delisted only if 75 per cent of the shareholders present at the meeting, excluding the major shareholder and directors, agree to the move.
In the light of these comparisons, should the regulators here make tweaks to the listing rules and takeover code similar to what has been done in Hong Kong? This must be the fervent hope of disheartened investors who find themselves getting the short end of the stick when they get a lacklustre price for their shares in a takeover exercise engineered by the major shareholder.


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ATLANTA – Vincent “Bo” Jackson, Co-Chairman of Promise Nutraceuticals announced the launch of their line of Hero Brand CBD products.
“Over the past few years, we have been approached by several CBD companies that were seeking my endorsement. As we began to research this industry, we learned that there was a lot of scientific data that supported the use of CBD and hemp-derived products. We also discovered there were a lot of products on the market that were misleading and consumers were confused.”
Jackson, and long-time business partners Danny Heffernan and Ken Krieg, then decided to put together a team of professionals that were experts in this space. “One of our primary goals was to ensure the removal of all THC during the refinement process” Krieg explained, and “create products that were innovative, safe and effective. We also wanted to take an active role in educating the consumer. In 2020 we partnered with LaurelCrest, an industry leader in Hemp and CBD products.”
“I am looking forward to working with this amazing team,” added Michael Bernstein, CEO of LaurelCrest. “My family and I started LaurelCrest to create a superior supply chain and to provide safe, effective, data driven technology into the marketplace. In the Hero brand we see the embodiment of our work; effective and affordable benefits for those who need it most.”
After two years of research and development, Promise Nutraceuticals is proud to introduce their Topical Trauma Oil and Water-Soluble Drops, the first in a line of Hero Brand CBD products. Heffernan added, “We chose ‘Hero’ as our brand name to honor our Military, First Responders, Healthcare Workers and hard -working Mom’s and Dad’s whose dedication and commitment to excellence mirror that of our Company and the innovative products we have developed.”
Jackson went on to say, “Promise Nutraceuticals is not about numbers on a balance sheet. We are a cause driven Company. Just like the Hero’s we honor; we are dedicated to improving lives and helping others.”
(This information is primarily sourced from Promise Nutraceuticals. Highly Capitalized has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Read our Disclaimer here).


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– The stars of Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia, Mr. Kennedy and Joe Manganello will be appearing at FYE at 100 South Broad St. in Philadelphia on Wednesday, January 7th from 7pm until 9pm.
– ECW Original Tommy Dreamer will be appearing at the World of Wheels Auto Show in Chattanooga, TN on Friday, January 9th from 7pm until 9pm.
– WWE will be airing a two-hour special based on the Legacy of Eddie Guerrero DVD beginning Monday, February 2nd on pay-per-view.
– MyNetworkTV’s running a new commercial promoting the WWE Divas of SmackDown, calling them “the most glamorous women on television,” not to mention “beautiful, desirable and dangerous.” Maryse, Michelle McCool, Maria, Eve Torres, and The Bella Twins are featured in the commercial. The two SmackDown Divas not shown in the commercial — Victoria and Natalya. Back in October, MyNetworkTV ran a similar commercial promoting the Divas of SmackDown with both Victoria & Natalya getting the red-headed stepchild treatment in that one too. Alicia Fox was featured in the original commercial over them even though she had barely been featured in WWE by that point.
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tech2 News StaffMar 02, 2021 14:44:10 IST
In a move that will supercharge development and rollout of electric two- and three-wheelers globally, the Piaggio Group, KTM AG, Honda Motor Co., Ltd, and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, have come together to set up a Swappable Batteries Consortium for motorcycles and light electric vehicles. To speed up the transition to an electric future, KTM, Piaggio, Honda and Yamaha will work together on a standardised swappable battery system that will help promote global sales of EVs and contribute to a more sustainable lifecycle management of batteries.
The four manufacturers will also focus their energies on extending range, shortening charging times and lowering EV and infrastructure costs, which they believe are the main concerns about switching to electric vehicles for end users. At present, Piaggio offers an all-electric Vespa abroad, and KTM has a few electric trail bikes. Honda and Yamaha, meanwhile, have an electric scooter each in their range.
As a consortium, the manufacturers aim to define the standardised technical specifications of the swappable battery system for vehicles classified under the L-category, which includes mopeds/scooters, motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles. The consortium will work with national, European and international standardization bodies to define international technical standards for such electric vehicles. The consortium will start its activities in May 2021.
A somewhat similar arrangement was witnessed in the four-wheeler space a few years ago, when leading carmakers came together to build ‘Ionity’, a high-power EV charging station network to facilitate long-distance travel across Europe.
Speaking on the letter of intent being signed, Michele Colaninno, Piaggio Group Chief of strategy and product, said, “With the signing of this letter of intent, the signatories show their proactiveness vis-à-vis the major concerns of their customers and the political priorities as regards the electrification of vehicles. An international standard for the swappable batteries system will make this technology efficient and at the disposal of the consumers. Finally, a strengthened cooperation among manufacturers and institutions will allow the industry to better respond to the main challenges of the future of mobility.”
Stefan Pierer, KTM AG CEO, said, “Sustainability is one of the key drivers to the future of mobility and electrification will play a major role in achieving this goal. For powered two-wheelers, the constraints of electric drivetrains regarding range, charging time and initial cost are still evident. To overcome these challenges and provide a better customer experience, a swappable battery system based on international technical standards will become a viable solution. Considering the entire lifecycle, a widespread application of batteries compliant with a common standard will support secondary use as well as circular economy. We are glad to be part of the Consortium as we strive towards our goals in the e-mobility sector.”
Executive Officer Takuya Kinoshita, Chief General Manager of Motorcycle Business Operations, Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. said, “I believe the creation of this Consortium holds great significance not just for Europe but the world as we move towards establishing standards for swappable batteries for light electric vehicles. I’m confident that through work like this, the technical specs and standards that currently differ by regional characteristics or the state of the industry in different markets will be unified, and, in the future, will help lead towards maximizing the merits of electric power for customers on a global level.”
Noriaki Abe, Managing Officer, Motorcycle Operations at Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Said, “The worldwide electrification effort to reduce CO2 on a global scale is accelerating, especially in Europe. For the widespread adoption of electric motorcycles, problems such as travel distance and charging times need to be addressed, and swappable batteries are a promising solution. Considering customer convenience, standardization of swappable batteries and wide adoption of battery systems is vital, which is why the four member manufacturers agreed to form the Consortium. Honda views improving the customers’ usage environment as an area to explore cooperation with other manufacturers, while bringing better products and services to customers through competition. Honda will work hard on both fronts to be the ‘chosen’ manufacturer for customer mobility.”


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TFI International’s turnaround of UPS Freight is running ahead of schedule, the company said Tuesday as it announced that it expects the LTL business, now called TForce Freight, to post an adjusted operating ratio below 95% for the second quarter.
TFI (NYSE:TFII) provided no details in what marks an unusual preannouncement ahead of the release of its second-quarter financial results on July 26. But the improvement in margins for the division “is consistent with companywide strong performance during the quarter.”
The Montreal-based trucking and logistics firm has previously provided expectations that TForce Freight’s margins would improve to 96%-97% percent within a year.
Instead, the division beat that target, and it happened only two months after the $800 million acquisition closed on April 30. While it might seem remarkably quick, working in TFI’s favor has been a red-hot U.S. LTL market.
UPS Freight was largely unprofitably under UPS’ ownership. TFI CEO Alain Bedard told analysts that his company’s plans for the LTL operation boiled down to making it “lean and mean,” which included renegotiating rates with shippers.
The acquisition is TFI’s largest to date. It added 6,300 trucks and 14,500 employees, including 11,500 Teamsters members.
- Done deal: TFI completes UPS Freight acquisition
- TFI hints at closer UPS ties beyond their $800M deal
- Did TFI CEO extend olive branch to Teamsters before UPS Freight deal?


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Microsoft bought Nokia for $7.2 billion in 2013. Microsoft released their Windows-based Lumia smartphones which were going okay but in the end, they did not go as well as Microsoft hoped. Nokia’s Symbian OS was a total disaster and after that, the fall of Nokia started and Samsung and Apple started emerging to the top.
After Nokia, Microsoft Has Given Up on Lumia
Microsoft made a good start in 2014 with some new Lumia smartphones having Microsoft brand name on them. The Lumia 535 was the first handset under the Microsoft brand name. It had dual SIM support, Windows 8.1 OS which is upgradeable to Windows 10 and a decent 1.2GHz quad-core cortex A7 CPU. It also featured a respectable 5.0 IPS display, 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage.
The Nokia Lumia 535 is one of the most successful Windows phones to date. However, there were also some software issues with the Lumia 535 regarding its touchscreen which was a software bug that was later resolved through an update. Microsoft released the Windows 10 based Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL last year. The Nokia Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL had great specifications. But still, there are some issues with the Windows Phone platform such as lack of apps, the restarting problem and more. Many of the issues got fixed through an update, though.
In the last four months of 2014, Microsoft sold 10.5 million Lumia smartphones which is highest in the history of Lumia phones. While Apple sold 61 million iPhones. The Windows Phones only made 2.7% of the total market shares. Companies like Lenovo, Huawei, LG made a huge blow to Microsoft’s Lumia smartphones. They made remarkable sales in the Asian markets which damaged Lumia’s sales even further.
Microsoft already sold their Lumia business to Foxconn, in addition to some other Nokia assets for $350 million in Vietnam. The company is going to lay off 2,850 staff members by next year in July. Microsoft only sold 1.4 million Lumia phones in the last four months
With no details about new upcoming Lumia phones, it seems like Microsoft is going down in the smartphone business. However, their Windows Phone OS is still improving. Anyhow, it’s indeed sad to see that Microsoft has given up on Lumia.


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Whole Foods recently overhauled its board and redoubled cost-cutting efforts, seeking to change a high-price image that has tagged it with the nickname "Whole Paycheck". It was truly love at first sight ... "These are great people with big hearts and big ideals that wanna make the world a better place and are making the world a better place".
And so we will be joining a company that's visionary.
Adrienne Anderson, at a Whole Foods in Savannah, Georgia, says she shops at Whole Foods nearly exclusively for meat and fresh produce "because of the quality and selection" and because fruits and vegetables are locally sourced. If you guys are going to be sold, we'd love to make one hundred million dollars doing that.
It's too soon to say what Amazon officially plans to do with Whole Foods, but rumors have been circling and experts have a few predictions. "We're not changing our quality standards", he told his employees.
Peter Arroyo, manager of Gristedes, had more on his mind regarding the Amazon-Whole Foods deal, which he predicted will "screw up the industry in all aspects", said Arroyo. "They put the customer first in everything they do and think backwards". This could be good news even if you don't shop at Whole Foods.
"We're gonna evolve", Mackey said. What the online retail behemoth is planning with the Whole Foods deal and its 460 brick and mortar locations throughout the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom is anyone's guess, but as Business Insider points out, this may be a pivotal step in the future of grocery shopping.
At the meet-up in Seattle, the executives spoke with Amazon for 2 1/2 hours, he said.
What exactly might these innovations be?
Amazon has been longing for a piece of the action and despite the launch of AmazonFresh over a decade ago, it is an industry that Jeff Bezos has found hard to get into.
Walmart is the nation's largest seller of groceries with category sales of $170 billion past year, and retail giant has found that the category is key to driving store visits and customer loyalty.
Mackey also said that he had a dream that Whole Foods would merge with Amazon about 18 months ago, presaging the industry-rattling deal.
It's not yet clear what specific changes are in store at either Amazon or Whole Foods, since the two companies are saying little about their plans. But they care about their team - their team members, their suppliers, their investors.
Amazon, like Wal-Mart, is known for using massive scale to offer low prices on everything from shoes and shirts to electronics and books.
There's been a lot of chatter that rivals might emerge to try and outbid Amazon for Whole Foods. The company has blamed the struggles on the wider availability of organic and natural food at traditional retailers, and said it is working on offering lower prices.
The Whole Foods chief said Amazon's technology will help the grocer transform from "class dunce" into "valedictorian". "He'll be very careful tinkering with anything that could hurt the value of the brand".
"One of the things they do better than us, they are more customer-centric than we are".
With its acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon acquires a portfolio of a dozen stores in New York City, including one at the Time Warner Center and another on the way at Manhattan West, as well as the grocer's distribution-supply chain. Shoppers could pick up their purchases at a Whole Foods store near them the same way they're doing under the AmazonFresh Pickup program.


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Statement on AI risk
SEEKING ALPHA reports: (This is taken from a post headed “OpenAI CEO, others write letter that ...
SEEKING ALPHA’s Romil Patel writes:
– Danaos had a great Q1 and the current valuation is the cheapest in the containership lessor industry.
– There are big backlogs for the next two years, which will provide a shield against lower freight rates.
– Share repurchases finally seem to be on the horizon.
I believe that Danaos is significantly undervalued by the market likely due to fears of a global recession. I find the risk of a significant global downturn to have little impact on Danaos ...
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John Lewis could close eight more of its remaining branches, with larger older shops most likely to close for good, it is claimed.
The department store could shut a fifth of its 42 remaining stores, as negotiations with landlords continue and hundreds of jobs are put at risk, The Sunday Timesreports.
Any announcement of closures is expected to take place alongside the company’s annual results on March 11.
John Lewis Partnership’s chairwoman Dame Sharon White has reportedly put forward eight shops for closure in an effort to further cut costs after the company suffered a £635m loss last September, The Sunday Times reports.
The news follows the closure of eight John Lewis stores, including John Lewis’ flagship Birmingham store, and the loss of 1,300 jobs in July last year – which was followed by a further 1,500 jobs axed from head office in November.
Read more: ‘Covid’ catastrophe – exactly as planned: John Lewis ‘is set to shut eight more of its 42 department stores’, just seven months after axing another eight of its locations – including the flagship shop


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EA has confirmed that the eagerly anticipated Star Wars Battlefront game will be making its public debut at the Star Wars Celebration convention next month in Anaheim, CA. At E3 last year, EA promised to share more details in the spring, and it looks like the publisher has kept to its word and we'll finally get to see the game in action next month.
The reboot, which was announced way back in May 2013, is the latest instalment in a series of video games lets players to experience the battles from George Lucas' famous space opera series. To many a fan's disappointment, little has been revealed since a brief teaser and official trailer was published last June.
"We could not think of a better or more appropriate place to debut the game officially for the first time than the premier event that celebrates the Star Wars universe and the legions of fans who have fallen in love with it," a post on EA's site reads.
Star Wars Battlefront is currently in development by DICE, veterans of the Battlefield franchise and Mirror's Edge. EA announced last October that it was aiming for a holiday 2015 release for the game. Free Radical Design, Pandemic Studios and Rebellion Developments are all developers who have previously worked on Battlefront games before the series went dormant some time ago. The game is technically the third in the Battlefront series, following releases in 2004 and 2005 from Lucasfilm's video game arm.
The annual LucasArts fan gathering runs from 16-19th April and information regarding the video game debut will be released in the next few weeks ahead of the event itself.


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Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Mozido Buys African Mobile Wallet Firm
Austin-based digital payment technology developer Mozido is expanding its efforts to Africa, via the acquisition of NettCash, a Zimbabwe company developing mobile wallet software. Mozido did not announce financial details of the deal, but said it had acquired a majority of NettCash in order to further establish a foothold in Africa. NettCash's services are used for mobile wallet and prepaid utility service in Zimbabwe, specifically for topping up payments on electricity meters. Zimbabwe switched to prepaid electricity meters in 2012, in order to help the state-run utility both improve its infrastructure as well as better collect payments from electricity customers.


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The millionaire father of Formula One ace Lando Norris has saved 11 cycle stores owned by Halfords, with the intention of selling electric scooters and bikes.
More than 80 jobs have been saved after Adam Norris, a former director at online broker Hargreaves Lansdown, bought the shops as a springboard for retailer Pure Electric.
Halfords revealed its intention to shut the Cycle Republic chain in mid-March after racking up millions in losses.
However, the shops are open for business during the coronavirus lockdown on account of them providing an “essential” service.
Mr Norris, who has an estimated fortune of more than £200m, launched Pure Scooters a year ago after seeing their popularity on the Continent.
The Glastonbury-based investor also believes electric bikes will grow in popularity in the coming years.
Electric scooters have divided opinion, with police cracking down on people using them on roads in the UK where it remains against the law to do so.
Parliament’s Transport Committee today launches an inquiry into electric scooters entitled “pavement nuisance or transport innovation?”
Committee chairman Huw Merriman said: “Electric scooters could be a useful lever to reduce our transport carbon footprint but their environmental credentials have yet to be proven.
“These ‘powered transporters’ could reduce the amount of time we spend in cars and reduce congestion but we don’t want to score an own goal by encouraging the use of micro mobility vehicles instead of walking and cycling.”
Mr Norris said: “We need to look hard at the future of our transport system and Covid-19 has accelerated the scrutiny of the status quo.
“The world of mobility is moving incredibly fast and we’re absolutely committed to being at the forefront of this exciting sector by opening prime city-centre locations. Our products have the potential to have a huge positive impact on our transport system.
“Recently, we’ve seen the role that e-scooters and bicycles have had in providing transport to key workers across the UK, helping them avoid public transport where risk of transmission is much higher.”
Mr Norris’ 20-year-old son Lando signed as a junior driver with McLaren three years ago before stepping up as one of the team’s two main drivers last year.


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Queretaro Automotive Supplier Conference HighlightsBy Alejandro Enríquez | Thu, 10/29/2020 - 17:24
"We are experiencing a virus that has forced us to change paradigms and rethink processes but that has made us more resilient toward change. Queretaro is making an effort to grow amid a challenging and changing environment," said Minister of Sustainable Development, Marco Antonio Del Prete during the opening of the Queretaro Automotive Cluster’s supplier conference, where more than 73 companies were looking for potential suppliers, including ACPS Automotive, Autoliv, Bosal, Bosch, Brose, BRP, DANA, DIEHL, TENNECO, HI-LEX, Hyundai KEFICO, Jetro, Kiekert, Prettl, Rassini, thyssenkrupp and Valeo.
Queretaro, in the Bajio area, is one of the states that concentrates the most auto part suppliers, as well as R&D and engineering operations. The Automotive Supply conference aims to create business opportunities for Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers, while increasing the value of Tier 1s and OEMs in the region. "Our task is to strengthen the ecosystem and keep it fertile," told Daniel Hernández, Director General to Mexico Business News earlier this month.
According to Queretaro's government figures, 23 new investment projects for a total of MX$9.5 biillion (US$450 million) from September 2019 to August 2020, have arrived to the state, five of them focused on part manufacturing. "The state is home to 104 Tier 1 suppliers, more than 200 Tier 2 suppliers and the automotive sector represents 34 percent of the state's GDP, 28 percent of the state's exports and 38 percent of the auto parts manufactured in the country," said Del Prete.
Throughout the week, the conference gathered industry leaders and experts addressing the needs of the region. Some of them included Manuel Montoya, President of Automotive Cluster Network, and Guido Vildozo, Main Partner at IHS Markit. The latter highlighted the effect the pandemic has had on Mexico's automotive industry. "The lack of a fiscal aid by the federal government has a lot to do with it. Truly, aid absence will limit recovery, which will start until 2021," said Vildozo.
IHS Markit forecasts a global contraction of between 15 and 20 percent for the global automotive industry, with global sales around 75 million units. The firm points out that 80 million units are needed for the sector to be profitable. As for the Mexican market, sales are set to be between 930,000 and 940,000 units. There was also a common agreement on the role USMCA will play in strengthening local suppliers. "USMCA will not impact the final consumer since RVC increases are low. OEMs should absorb this increase, which will make them look for national suppliers to reduce costs and substitute imports. Companies will look at Mexico for this purpose since it has the offer to supply the industry," said Eric Anderson, Senior Light Vehicle Production Analyst North America at IHS Markit.


text:
Published in News
Intel’s profit down 27% as PC market falters
Revenue falls 3%
Need more proof that the PC market is in trouble? Bellwether Intel has posted some rather lackluster results, disappointing investors, but still managing to beat analyst forecasts.
In Q4 Intel saw its profit fall 27 percent, while revenues fell 3 percent, from $13.5 billion, down from $13.9 billion. The weak PC market is to blame for the weak results and analysts estimate PC shipments declined 3.5 percent in 2012.
Intel is not out of the woods yet. It estimates its first-quarter revenue at $12.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million. Analysts expected $12.9 billion. What’s more, Intel plans to increase capital spending to $13 billion, exceeding analyst expectations by $3 billion. Analysts are now expressing fears that high capital expenditures could increase Intel’s fixed costs and drive down margins.
Intel is hoping that pouring more money into manufacturing, namely into 450mm development, will give the company a significant cost advantage in the long run. However, 450mm plants are still years away. In the meantime Intel will have to work out what it wants to do in the mobile market. It is still struggling to gain a foothold in the mobile market, dominated by ARM chips from the likes of Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple and Nvidia.


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December 21, 2020
The Best of the Marketing Behind the Curtain Podcast in 2020
by Liz Pope
As our year comes to a close, we’re sharing a round-up of the top episodes of Marketing Behind the Curtain with our own Devin Kelley.
In the midst of adjusting to a global pandemic, working from home, and new normals it was nice to hear that all of this change was working in favor of some folks. For Dave Hunt, a sudden spike in demand for at-home fitness options kept his Crossrope team extremely busy in 2020.
If you’re in the eCommerce space, have seen a boom in sales this year, or a fan of jumping: this one’s for you!
Changes in leadership were not out of the ordinary this year, so we sat down with Ken Mills to hear about his first 100 days as CEO of IntelliSite, a growing tech company just down the road in Charlotte, NC.
As the world has been been forced to embrace remote work, Ken touches on the immeasurable value of teams dedicated to digital transformation within the company as well as why keeping teams connected and motivated matters.
This year, COVID-19 put cleanliness and sanitation at top of mind. The public needed reassurance that the food and products that they were bringing into their homes were safe and protected.
Jenn Grabenstetter, VP of Global Brand & Content Marketing at Sealed Air noted that her team was suddenly passed the mic, as leaders in the food packaging industry.
Have a listen if you’re interested in hearing more about persona-driven marketing, creating video safely, or adapting to both B2B and B2C audiences.
We’re so thankful for all of our guests this year, and are looking forward to another year taking a peek Behind the Curtain in 2021!


text:
Latest MacOS marks the end of the road for the two-decade-old music app
Apple is abusing control of the iOS platform and App Store, claims Spotify
'Windows Graph is the glue between all your devices which makes it all happen'. And for the first time, 'Windows PCs will love all your devices'
All the news about Apple last week
HP printer, Livescribe Smartpen 3 and Dell Wyse Cloud Connect USB thin client also tested
Company thought to have paid $200m for start-up
Many iTunes users across the world have had their accounts hacked in the past week
Steve Jobs unveils iTunes 9, HTC's Android-based Tattoo, and Currys staff get foul-mouthed


text:
HTC Loses Another Key Executive
October 18, 2013 3:00 PM
comment(s) - last by
Losing money and staff at a rapid rate there's no easy answer for HTC
HTC Corp.'s (
) bid to stay relevant in the smartphone industry took another hit this week when Lorain Wong -- a top executive -- announced she was leaving her post as HTC's global public relations vice president
after only four months
Back in July she had take the reins from Jason Gordon who left the firm. She seemed a promising fit having enjoyed successful campaigns at many mobile firms, including her most recent stint at submarine cable provider Asia Global Crossing, where as VP of marketing she orchestrated a successful rebranding campaign as AGC became "Pacnet".
Word of the VP's resignation came this week
. It ascribed "personal reasons" as the cause of the resignation, although it’s
hard to believe that HTC's recent loss
-- the first in company history -- had nothing to do with it.
Former HTC Global PR VP, Lorain Wong
Ms. Wong has agreed to stay on 3 to 4 months as a consultant, so clearly the decision to leave was hers, and not something her employer wanted.
For HTC -- company who admitted that much of its struggles have been due to poor communication and marketing -- this is terrible news. But ultimately given HTC's market direction, it's become all too predictable that
top talent will leave it
. HTC has
cut back on executive pay
, and five other major executives had let it in 2012 and 2013, in addition ot VP Wong.
At the same time HTC has
scaled back its research and development spending
, leading many of its engineers to be laid off or face pay cuts. As a result companies like China and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (
) have been
feasting on this wealth of abandoned talent
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: The media's new punching bag?
10/19/2013 9:06:29 AM
lol yeah. Some public relations person leaves and it's a "huge blow"??
ANYONE can do her job!! 9/10'th of it is just being a hot Asian milf with a nice smile.
RE: The media's new punching bag?
10/22/2013 2:30:34 AM
Way to show your ignorance of women, ignorance of Taiwanese business culture, and ignorance of business in general.
Her job at HTC pays well. If it's that easy why don't you offer to replace her? Or are you afraid you will succeed too much and show everybody up?
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text:
Penneys has announced extended opening hours for its 36 stores around the country.
The stores have been closed since the end of October, when Level 5 restrictions were introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19.
All 36 Penneys outlets in Ireland will reopen with the rest of the retail sector on Tuesday.
The chain is aiming to allow for longer opening times to meet the "anticipated higher demand" that would have built up over the lockdown period.
It's hoped the extended opening hours will reduce queues by spreading shopping hours over a wider period.
Penneys outlets in Dundrum and Blanchardstown will open at 7am on Tuesday and will close the following day at 10pm.
Elsewhere, city centre and major shopping centre stores will operate until 10pm on weekdays, while stores in towns will close at the slightly earlier time of 9pm.
All of the stores will be retrofitted to reflect safety requirements arising from the pandemic.
Penneys CEO, Paul Marchant, explained that they've tried to make shopping as safe as possible this festive season.
“We are delighted to re-open our stores in Ireland on 1st December with longer shopping hours to give our customers more time to safely do their festive shopping.
"We have everything this season that our customers expect from Penneys, including our famous Christmas jumpers, festive pyjamas and much, much more.
"All of our extensive safety measures remain in place to help ensure shopping at Penneys is an enjoyable, safe experience for everyone.”
Visit our Covid-19 info hub for the latest news and information on the Covid-19 pandemic.


text:
There are plenty of former BlackBerry employees that have much to say on the recent state of the company. It seems that they each have their own stories of what may have contributed to BlackBerry's decline -- some of the latest having been compiled in a piece from The Globe and Mail.
In addition to stories of Jim Balsillie saying BlackBerry didn't need to advertise and Mike Lazaridis not seeing the need for a camera in devices, BlackBerry also may have missed a huge marketing play in none other than Justin Bieber.
It's no secret that former BlackBerry CMO Frank Boulben didn't really change the face of BlackBerry. He had a grand plan for a Superbowl commercial that was more confusing to consumers than anything, and he also had a hand in bringing on Alicia Keys as Global Creative Director. While Alicia Keys was hugely recognizable across the world, she didn't bring much to the table for BlackBerry. They sponsored her tour and her album was plastered over BlackBerry 10 screens, but the partnership didn't pan out in the end and we haven't seen anything from her in months.
Vincent Washington, who was senior business development manager at BlackBerry from 2001-2011, noted that BlackBerry had missed a big marketing opportunity. Apparently Justin Bieber had approached BlackBerry and wanted to be their brand ambassador, but the response was "he's not going to last."
One thing we missed out on was that Justin Bieber wanted to rep BlackBerry. He said, “Give me $200,000 and 20 devices, and I’m your brand ambassador,” basically. And we pitched that to marketing: Here’s a Canadian kid, he grew up here, all the teeny-boppers will love that. They basically threw us out of the room. They said, “This kid is a fad. He’s not going to last.” I said at the meeting: “This kid might outlive RIM.” Everyone laughed.
Love him or hate him, the Biebs is one of the biggest names there is and would have made for a great brand ambassador for BlackBerry. He used a BlackBerry for years, he's Canadian, and the ladies love him. What more could you ask for?
Instead of Justin Bieber, BlackBerry got Alicia Keys. Maybe BlackBerry should have snatched up Bieber, said we'll Never Let You Go and they'd have One Less Lonely Girl.


text:
Jacksonville, Fla. – The Safariland Group, a manufacturer of protective products and equipment primarily for law enforcement and the military, has acquired Mustang Survival and its related entities, Mustang Survival Inc. and Mustang Survival Mfg. Inc. (collectively, "Mustang Survival").
Mustang Survival provides lifesaving equipment for recreational, military, law enforcement and industrial users in the marine and aviation environments. For more than 45 years, Safariland says, Mustang Survival has been transforming innovative ideas and technologies into high-quality and practical lifesaving products such as inflatable personal flotation devices, flotation clothing, dry suits, anti-g suits and a wide range of products to protect serious users in extreme environments.
"We are excited to be bringing together two companies that are both committed to saving lives as a part of their core mission," says Scott O'Brien, president of The Safariland Group, in a company news release. "Mustang Survival's history of lifesaving marine and aviation equipment has presented unique growth opportunities for our company, especially as we aim to broaden our suite of products that help save lives."
The Safariland Group, acquired by an affiliate of Kanders and Company Inc. in July 2012, says it is globally expanding its current brands while pursuing acquisitions aligned with its mission of "Together, We Save Lives." Mustang Survival represents the company's first acquisition in the marine and aviation industries.
"Joining forces with The Safariland Group represents an important step in the global expansion of the Mustang Survival brand," says Mustang President Jim Hartt, who will continue in his current role. "We expect to leverage their resources to further drive our innovation in new product development and to take our products to a new level of performance as we expand the reach of our safety equipment to new customers, markets and applications."
National Fisherman Live for March 11, 2014
Governor Terry McAuliffe announced today the appointment of John M.R. Bull as Commissioner of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. John Bull has been with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission since June 2007 and has been serving as Acting Commissioner since January 2014.
PORTSMOUTH, NH - The New Hampshire Fish and Lobster Festival, known locally as Fishtival, invites the community to Portsmouth's Prescott Park each September to honor, celebrate and rediscover the proud tradition of small-scale, local commercial groundfishing in New Hampshire and its valuable contribution to our local food system, local economy and local culture. Now, the mission continues with the announcement of small grants available from the proceeds of the 2013 event.


text:
EY probes cashback fraud at Paytm Mall, to build tech-driven prevention system1 min read . Updated: 13 May 2019, 04:17 PM IST
- Paytm Mall said it continues to de-list fraud merchants and take strict action wherever needed
- The investigation has been going on for almost a fortnight and some employees have also been fired
E-commerce platform Paytm Mall has engaged consulting and audit major EY to investigate a cashback fraud involving some of its employees and merchants, according to sources.
Select your Category


text:
In-App Purchases Account for Majority of Revenue, More American Mobile Gamers
International market research firm Newzoo has just released a report concerning mobile gaming in the U.S. The report claims that the amount of American mobile gamers has risen by over 25 million gamers in the last year and the number of paying players has gone up to 36% of all mobile gamers.
Of mobile gamers in the U.S., Newzoo reported that 69% played on smartphones while 21% played on tablets. The total of mobile gamers in the U.S. has increased from 75 million to 101 million (about a 35% increase). Within that American mobile gaming group, it’s clear that iOS gamers are significantly more profitable.
Paying American mobile gamers has gone up 35% to 37 million gamers. 36% of all mobile gamers are paying gamers. In America, gamers spend five times more money on iOS games than Android games. 28% of all smartphone gamers in America play on iPhones and another 18% play on the iPod Touch. The iPad has a huge portion of the tablet gamer’s space at 60% (12.7 million Americans). iOS accounted for 84% of the total mobile revenue for mobile games on iOS and Android. For both platforms, the majority of that money is coming from in-app purchases, not the purchases of the games themselves. 91% for both iOS and Android’s game revenue was from in-app.
Newzoo CEO, Peter Warman, attributes Apple’s successful monetization to the mandatory linking of credit card information to iTunes/App Store accounts,
“Apple requires users to connect their credit card information directly to their account, thus creating a seamless purchase experience. I can hardly imagine any other company in the world that would be able to get away with this…”